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When I was little I did ballet. By all accounts I was quite good at ballet - certainly I was moved up to the class above my age group because I was capable and enthusiastic. Then we moved to England and we did not find a good ballet class, doing stuff much easier and less focussed than I was used to. I asked to move up but that school had a strict age-based rather than ability-based policy of class assignments.
So I stopped doing ballet and my Saturday mornings filled up with gymnastics and swimming until, by the time we had a recommendation of a good ballet school, I felt I should carry on with those things. In some ways I wish I hadn't - I love dance a lot more than gymnastics! But the gymnastics left me with good balance and by the time I was actually good at swimmin I'd probably have focussed on that anyway.
I never really stopped dancing, though. I read books - not just Ballet Shoes and Nicola Mimosa, technical ballet books - and watched ballet on TV, and tried to follow along. Very dangerously, because I didn't have pointe shoes but I didn't let that stop me.
At about 7 or 8 I started barn dancing 'lessons' in a local community centre. Really, they were just barn dances for children, with a tuck shop in the middle, and a little focus on good form of steps. But they were every week and it meant I was dancing every week. And when I was 12 I started going on a week long holiday which often had a ceilidh or occasionally an Elizabethan dance session or, one year, a tea dance. I don't think they do any more - the caller who usually came lives in East Anglia and the week happens in other parts of the country now. Everyone had a go at playing in the band, mostly double bass and percussion for people who don't play an obvious instrument. So I've played double bass for ceilidhs and never for other reasons :) That's really good too for progress.
Later still I had a boyfriend with whom I went to ballroom dancing lessons. None of that stuck, but it was a year or so of weekly dancing again, and that boyfriend is a wonder and a love and not reading this but if you happen to want a romantic beautiful darling man who can waltz, I'll put you in touch.
Now I barely do any dancing. Ceilidhs at weddings, often, and just sometimes freeform dancing with the children or partners. But I'm still the only parent at J's ballet class. who can do fifth position :) and I really miss dancing. If I could fit in an adult class at the children's ballet school, I would, but it clashes with karate.
Some people came up with ceilidhs I might be able to go to with Judith, which seem appropriate and I hope to actually do that one day, somehow calendars have not so far allowed.
As for the children, Benedict and Judith started ceilidh dancing at 2 or 3 but haven't done much for a while. We did groups with J, and B just went to a lot of weddings and dances for other excuses. Andreas hasn't really yet, because we never get time. However, J & A both do ballet now and I'd like to make a plug for their ballet school Dedikated (and her picture's on the exam page), who are extra lovely and really good at helping the children improve and be happy. Also, they are really good at noticing what each child needs and giving that.
So I stopped doing ballet and my Saturday mornings filled up with gymnastics and swimming until, by the time we had a recommendation of a good ballet school, I felt I should carry on with those things. In some ways I wish I hadn't - I love dance a lot more than gymnastics! But the gymnastics left me with good balance and by the time I was actually good at swimmin I'd probably have focussed on that anyway.
I never really stopped dancing, though. I read books - not just Ballet Shoes and Nicola Mimosa, technical ballet books - and watched ballet on TV, and tried to follow along. Very dangerously, because I didn't have pointe shoes but I didn't let that stop me.
At about 7 or 8 I started barn dancing 'lessons' in a local community centre. Really, they were just barn dances for children, with a tuck shop in the middle, and a little focus on good form of steps. But they were every week and it meant I was dancing every week. And when I was 12 I started going on a week long holiday which often had a ceilidh or occasionally an Elizabethan dance session or, one year, a tea dance. I don't think they do any more - the caller who usually came lives in East Anglia and the week happens in other parts of the country now. Everyone had a go at playing in the band, mostly double bass and percussion for people who don't play an obvious instrument. So I've played double bass for ceilidhs and never for other reasons :) That's really good too for progress.
Later still I had a boyfriend with whom I went to ballroom dancing lessons. None of that stuck, but it was a year or so of weekly dancing again, and that boyfriend is a wonder and a love and not reading this but if you happen to want a romantic beautiful darling man who can waltz, I'll put you in touch.
Now I barely do any dancing. Ceilidhs at weddings, often, and just sometimes freeform dancing with the children or partners. But I'm still the only parent at J's ballet class. who can do fifth position :) and I really miss dancing. If I could fit in an adult class at the children's ballet school, I would, but it clashes with karate.
Some people came up with ceilidhs I might be able to go to with Judith, which seem appropriate and I hope to actually do that one day, somehow calendars have not so far allowed.
As for the children, Benedict and Judith started ceilidh dancing at 2 or 3 but haven't done much for a while. We did groups with J, and B just went to a lot of weddings and dances for other excuses. Andreas hasn't really yet, because we never get time. However, J & A both do ballet now and I'd like to make a plug for their ballet school Dedikated (and her picture's on the exam page), who are extra lovely and really good at helping the children improve and be happy. Also, they are really good at noticing what each child needs and giving that.
