Sedona's Ballet Class

By MAGGIE WANG

Sedona has been asking to go to ballet class, so being a mom who wants to expose my child to everything possible, I set it up. I actually knew exactly what to do, because I tried to expose her to it last year and she wouldn't even go into the studio. 

I put her in the trial class today. She was super excited to go but once we got to the studio where she had to leave my side, she got timid and didn't want to stay. I stayed with her for a few minutes while we watched the girls do tap. Sedona seemed very intrigued when I said she didn't have to do any of it and could just watch.  She watched intently without doing anything, and once they moved classrooms to go from tap to ballet, she walked nicely with the teacher to the other class and started to interact, not needing me anymore and going on with the class.

Sedona is shy about trying new things without Kevin or me there with her (wonder who she got that from?!); she clung to Kevin the past two weeks when we had Sedona use up the last two classes of "Coach Mike" after Maven wouldn't participate in T-ball without Kevin by her side. After initial reluctance, Sedona wound up doing the T-ball class and loving it (video footage to come) but then wouldn't do the soccer the next week.

But in this with ballet, I will say the circumstances weren't that conducive to an easy transition: Our trial class was at the end of the spring session, and all the other little girls already knew each other well from being in a class together for months, and they were prepping for a performance they were putting on in a couple weeks. 

The rooms have windows with bar stools for the parents to watch from outside. All the other moms were oohing and ahhing about how quickly Sedona was picking it up and laughed about how she was doing it better than their daughters. It was very sweet of them to band together to make me feel welcome.

Sedona is to the right of the teacher.

As expected from our direction-following girl, Sedona listened and followed intently. 

(Sedona is all about coloring inside the lines. She doesn't really like it when the other kids or Maven "scribble-scrabble" randomly, though she will do that sometimes, too.)

Sedona will not be in their upcoming performance because she was just trying this class, but during the practice Sedona quickly followed and was a part of the group. We have officially signed up for the seven-week summer ballet session with one of her good school friends, Regan Barker, with whom Sedona hangs out all the time at Montessori. I'm excited for Sedona. She has been practicing at home with her tap and ballet shoes. Tonight, she actually wanted to sleep with her ballet shoes, and when I said she couldn't, she wanted them near her bed.

 

As an update, Sedona is taking a hiatus from tennis. This summer, Sedona will be doing ballet and swim.  Maven was doing great with swim until she had an unfamiliar fill-in instructor whilie Kevin and I were in Cancun and lost her positive momentum. We have since pulled Maven out of swim class and are planning on me taking both girls the West End Tennis Club kid-friendly shallow pool once a week. Both girls are loving the water (Maven might be a little young and just has become shy about the instructors), so it is fun for me to take them to the pool. Last Saturday, we were there for almost two hours -- and they still didn't want to leave.