Our ballerina

Yes, Jessa is finally taking ballet and tap. And boy does she love it. We have all been really curious about the whole thing, but she is not terribly free with information. So other than the few peeks that we sneak using the mirrors during drop off and pick up, we have been in the dark.

The answer to our lack of information came this week: Parent Observation Week. Yes! We get to see her in action. Of course, David AND Bay are both out of town, so by "we" I mean me and Spencer. But that is OK. I have many cameras. . . (of course in order to video the whole thing my still camera work suffered, but I think I got a few good ones.

I was worried at first that she would be too distracted by all the parents (especially ME) to actually pay attention. But once class started, she focused and paid attention. And many of the girls were very distracted, so I was tickled that she was not (for the most part). My photos seemed to capture the times she was looking at us, but I promise this is not representative. Seriously, she is way more interested in how she looks in the mirror than anything else.

The first half of the class is ballet. They lined up and practiced their foot positions and pliés. So precious! Then they worked on the bar some. This would be the first distraction that we saw out of our ballerina.

Then they did a princess walk. So cute! Their teacher places an imaginary crown on their heads and they have to walk, with their toes pointed and arms outstretched without letting the crown fall. Jessa's did not fall, whew!

There was a lot of sitting around and waiting, though. The teacher likes to watch them do some of the moves on their own so she does not miss anything. Jessa took these opportunities to goof off a little.

The second half of class is tap. This is also lots of fun, although it is much louder. Not at all surprising, Jessa likes this noisy stuff!

They each got to pick shuffle step ball change or shuffle step hop step. Jessa chose ball change.

They always close each week with a mirror part. They have to pair up with a partner and the leader does a pose and the other one has to copy the pose. They were all so funny with the poses they came up with. I like this one a lot because Jessa and her partner's feet really do look like mirror images!

All in all, it was a great class and I am so glad I got to watch. I just hope that when David looks at the tape I made he will not throw up. Holding a camera steady for 1 hour while also taking pictures is hard. Oh and I also had someone climbing on me during much of the night, too. Speaking of someone climbing, want to know what sweet little brothers do during dance class observation?

He started out watching.

Then he needed to lay in my lap and rest.

Then he discovered the joy of mirrors.

Then he just grabbed his coat to get ready to get out of there!

We had a great time, and I must say that Jessa seems to really get a lot out of this. I am so glad! And if there is any question about her devotion to dance, look what she slept in last Wednesday: