Natalie is taking ballet classes this year and will continue to next year and have a recital in May. I am sure excited! She seems to love ballet! I didn't expect her to want to do ballet, I thought she would want to do tumbling or maybe tap dancing or soccer but she chose ballet. She really focuses and works hard! The last class before winter break was parent observation. We got to watch the whole class and see what they do each week. They really have learned a lot of ballet!
They start by practicing their skipping. I didn't realize Natalie could skip until a few weeks after ballet started. She must have learned how to skip in ballet. Then they do stretches. Natalie is really not very flexible compared to some of the other girls in her class! I need to figure out how to help her stretch to be more flexible.
Then they generally do bar exercises but they did them in the middle so we could see. Here is first position, second, and third positions. They must have not learned 4th or 5th yet.
Then they practiced plies and releves. She doesn't turn out her knees when doing plies but instead bends her knees forward. I'm sure they will work on this in ballet and not in pre-ballet (that's what she is in).
Then they moved onto tendus, passes, and battements. They tendu front and side (she's much better to the side).
Then they showed us more ballet moves moving across the floor. I didn't get photos of this because it wouldn't have looked like much! Instead I got videos. I'm not sure why she needed to play with her mouth at the end of all the passes! They practiced walking on their toes like ballerinas, doing ballet running, chasses and leaping.
Then they finish by getting ribbons and doing free dances. The teacher does freeze them and suggest different types of dances (but very abstract like ballet, jumping, reindeer, quiet, etc). I did not get good photos as Natalie stayed in the back and was generally behind other girls.
She really loves ballet and I look forward to seeing her recital!
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