Gwenevere's Ballet Recital

My little Gwenevere performed in  her first ballet recital last week.  She was amazing.  \

This whole ballet thing truly took me by surprise and helped me grow.  

Flashback:

Gwenevere's friend did ballet at a local studio.  The class was free and Tanya kept asking me if I was going to have Gwenevere join.  To be completely honest.  I didn't think Gwenevere was ready.  She sometimes had a hard time listening, her gross motor skills weren't the best, and I wasn't sure if she even cared to dance/  Gwemevere never danced just for fun around the house and she always looked at me strangely whenever I tried to dance.  

Finally when Gwenevere turned 3 another friend gave us a black leotard and a pink tutu.  It was a sign.  I finally decided to enrolled Gwenevere for the class, (dreading every minute, yet hoping for the best.)

James took Gwenevere to her first ballet class.  I didn't have the stomach to go.  

When James came back I drilled him with every question I could think of.  Finally James admitted  that the teacher had made a comment about Gwenevere's age, thinking she might be too young for ballet and when the teacher found out Gwenevere was 3 years old told him that she would  need to practice listening and following instructions.  

My heart sank.  My worst fears where conformed.  Was I wrong for signing her up?  Should I have followed my gut feeling and not enrolled her?  Or was I making this a bigger deal then it really was?  

After many phone calls to my sisters and friends, I finally decided to just let her go.  

I needed to remind myself that eventually, one day; a long long time from now, I will have to let her go.  Ready or not she will need to make her own way in this world and I will have to let her go.  

We went every week for the last 5 months.  Some weeks she woke up excited to go and other weeks it wasn't so pleasant getting her out the door.  I felt bad making her go those times she didn't want to go, but I figured she could do it for 6 months and then stop if she wanted.  

As time went on I would have like to think she got better at listening and following instructions.   But I could tell Gwenevere was improving her gross motor skills,  Gwenevere began jumping and twirling around the house.   Her teacher never again commented on Gwenevere's behavior.   And I began to love Miss Damaris.  Miss Damaris is exactly the ballet instructor you can imagine.  Middle age, closer to being  older than younger.  Hair black and combed back, not up in a bun since she has short hair, but still very proper.  Miss Damaris' personality isn't' warm and bubbly, she's not a happy huger like myself, trying to please everybody.  She's who she is and that is the way things are.  

Miss Damaris has taught Gwenevere what I suck at doing, She has taught Gwenevere what it means to be consistent.  With love and structure Miss Damaris has shown me how structure and order bring pleasure to everyone.    

I know I'm very spacey, unorganized and give in way too easily.  I long to be more like Miss Damaris and hope to someday find a balance for me, but until than I hope Gwenevere will turn out okay.  

I guess what I'm trying to say is I am truly grateful for Miss Damaris and her influence she is on the beautiful life of my baby girl.  Thank you Gwenevere for being patient with me as I try to figure out how to raise you.  You are doing a beautiful job growing up.  I would love to take full credit for it, but I know it is mostly you who has ,made you become the vibrant 3 year old that I love so much.  

Present:

With this past weekend being the Ballet Recital and the end to this learning experience for now.  I have tried to soak in every last minute and to truly celebrate the growth in our lives.  

Mid April 

I wasn't sure what our plans where and if we'd even be living in Tacoma in June, so I didn't think Gwenevere would participate in the ballet  recital.

Then James got his job offer and we found out we'd be here.  That same week I got a e-mail from the studio asking for Gwenevere costume money.  I didn't pay earlier for a costume because I didn't think she'd be performing but now that they had a costume already for her and we'd be staying I mailed in my check and that was the beginning of the this whole recital thing.  

Miss Damaris found and fell in love with Brigette Barrager's children's book "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." 

Miss Damaris contacted Barrager and her publishers and asked if they could use her work as inspiration for their ballet performance.  Once everything was approved the girls began to rehearse.  Gwenevere's class's ballet number was inspired by the elegant shoes the twelve dancing princesses wore.  

Her class danced around to display the different kinds of shoes, then they lined up and found a partner so they could become a pair of shoes.  They did a dance with their pattern and then again lined up waved goodbye with their feet and proudly marched of stage back into the closet.  That is the sum of their performance.  I have a video of it on my facebook page if you would like to see.  

A couple of weeks before Gwenevere recital, Gwenevere had pictures.  Miss Damaris was insistent that every girl have their hair pulled back for pictures.  I had never tried to pull Gwenevere's hair up,  She hates it when i brush her hair let alone put a hair tie in.  I was nervous about the challenge and decided to give it a try prior to picture day.  

After bath time I put Gwenevere up by the sink and told her I was going to do her hair back in a bun.  She sat still and the outcome wasn't half bad.  I was relieved it went to so well and that I was actually able to get her hair into a bun.

Then came picture day.  I gave Gwenevere a bath, got her dressed and plopped her in front of the mirror so I could do her hair.  This time she wasn't so willing to oblige.  With Gwenevere screaming and kicking I tried to do her hair but it just wasn't working.  I was getting upset, and angry which lead to Gwenevere getting angrier.   I wasn't going to let my stubborn child make me give in,  I can be stubborn too.  I called for reinforcement.  James came in to help.  Gwenevere wouldn't let me touch her hair but I could hold her while James did it.  Gwenevere was still crying and wiggling but James somehow managed to pull her hair into a bun.  The bun was lop sided and her hair was bumpy.  It wasn't at all cute but it was done. I was bummed her pictures wouldn't look good but what could I do, this was as good as it was going to get.  

We drove to the Johnson's to pick up a friend for ballet pictures.  Chloe's hair was beautiful.  She has the same length hair as Gwenevere but her Mom, Jill used bobby  pins to pin Chloe's hair.  It was simply gorgeous.  Why hadn't I thought of that?  In desperation I asked Jill if she could do Gwenevere's hair.  Jill took one look at Gwenevere's attempted hair do and quickly agreed to help me out.  Within three minutes Gwenevere came out of Jill's house anew, happy and ready for pictures.  

As I watched Gwenevere get her pictures taken my heart melted.  "Oh how I love this little girl".  I live for moments like these, when everything somehow works out, even when I fell so miserably.  After Gwenevere got her pictures taken Chloe asked the photographer if She could take pictures with Gwenevere.  Even with 50 girls waiting in line for pictures and running behind schedule the  photographer smiled and said "of course".  Chloe and Gwenevere posed together, giving hugs and blowing kisses.  It was precious.  

 

Soon June rolled around and it was time for the dress rehearsal.   I didn't attempt to do Gwenevere's hair, we just went straight to the source, Jill.  The rehearsal was from 4:00pm-7:30.  Given the fact that is dinner time and almost bed time the kids did really well.  

I took Gwenevere home and she went straight to bed.  The next morning we drove down to Portland for Austin's Graduation.  I knew this was going to be a busy weekend and I wanted to make it as smooth as possible.  We decided to make our trip a day trip so that we could all sleep in our own beds and hope for the best when it came to Gwenevere's ballet recital the next day.  It wasn't until midnight when we where ready to leave Portland so we decided to stay the night instead.  

We woke up early Saturday morning and drove back to Tacoma.  We stopped and got smoothies from MacDonald's for breakfast.  By the time we got home it was time to get ready for the recital, Gwenevere took a bath, we tried to get her to eat some food but she wasn't hungry so we got her dressed and took her to Jill's house to get her hair done.  James took Gwenevere early and I stayed behind and got the babysitter for Grace.  

I figured Gwenevere had worked hard and I wanted to give her our undivided attention this special day.   Poor Grace was not a happy camper, tired from the long trip the day before, with a slight fever and teething, I left Grace in the hands of a wonderful 14 year old who looked a bit nervous.  

Picture taken back stage right before the ballet began

Grandma Sharolee drove up just to watch Gwenevere perform.  She made the day complete.

The ballet was amazing.  I had never been to a ballet before but I was in heaven.  I was so impressed that each seen told part of a story while also demonstrating the skills mastered by each level of ballet performers.

Of course Gwenevere's class was the cutest.  The whole audience awed over their cuteness.  Gwenevere did a great job staying in line and dancing around at the appropriate times.

After the performance all the ballerinas came back on stage for the grand finale.

Gwenevere tried looking for us but it was too bright.

 By the end of Miss Damaris' thank you speech Gwenevere was exhausted.

After the performance James gave Gwenevere some roses and we took a few pictures together.

Chloe, Aidan, and Gwenevere

Miss Magdalene and Gwenevere

Gwenevere was so hungry and tired the only thing holding her together was that  sucker.

Walking towards the car afterwards, I felt so happy.  My little girl did it, and I was proud.

We went back home to find Grace and the babysitter happy.  I took the babysitter home and then Grandma Sharolee took us out for ice cream.  It was wonderful.

I don't know if Gwenevere will do ballet in the fall, we'll just wait and see if that's something she wants to do, but for now,  I'm so glad we gave it a try.