The entire production was amazing, the time and effort and work put in by every dancer, the backstage help and the tireless teacher who so enthusiastically believes in each and every one of them.
The kid had an absolute ball with the whole thing. Three performances over two weekends. The make-up, the rehearsals, the back stage excitement.
Her knees weren’t the highest or her toes the pointiest. She didn’t smile the biggest or wear the most makeup. But she was a star. Our star. Her honest, ernest face as she performed every well practiced movement. She didn’t forget a step, not even the changes made in the later stages of production.
Watching her go up there and perform under lights and over 300 people, in each of the three shows made me so incredibly proud. It’s not something I would have had the guts to do at 5 years old and it makes me so happy to know that she has the confidence and self-belief to go up and give it a try. Flanked on all sides by friends of course!
I do have issue with the makeup on young kids. I wonder if we are enforcing in their minds that they need makeup to be ‘pretty’. I know the practical logistics behind using it for the stage, but I wonder about the emotional and psychological impact at a young age.
How do I balance the stage logistics with my strongly held belief that no child, no person, needs make up to beautiful. That it doesn’t matter how floofy your skirt is or how much eye shadow you have on. You are beautiful and you are worthy.
lovely flower! wendie’s wanting her performance to arrive… in april! but for now she’s feeling quite bad at ballet class, on monday the teacher yelled them because most of the girls are trouble girls, like don’t listening to the teachar and so, which i understand because they already come from a whole day of class, and wendie was still at class but she felt like the teacher was yelling to her too, so now she doesn’t want to return to class, we’ve told her that we’re going to talk to the teacher, and let’s see…