Arden Ballerina

This summer I enrolled Arden at Vicki Michelle Dance School.  She took a ballet/tap/twirl class with her best friend, Myleigh! 

Arden at Fancy Dancer being fitted for her very first pair of ballet shoes

The girls had so much fun in class... probably too much fun since they had to be separated on the first day, Ha!  They are actually pretty good at sitting still and paying attention now.  And most of the kids in there have short attention spans, so I'm not too worried.  Their teacher, Ms. Vicki, is very patient with all of the little girls. 

Myleigh and Arden

 The class is an hour long and is twenty minutes of each portion.  Ballet is Arden's favorite of the three.  At first it was pretty scary watching a bunch of three year-olds with batons!  They would spin them, throw them, and pop each other with them.  Ms. Vicki quickly taught them the right way to handle the batons, though, and it hasn't been a problem since the first day.  The little girls are sooo cute to watch.  Ms. Vicki has to close the blinds so that the girls won't get distracted by the spectators.  Because we can't see through the blinds, the parents watch the class on a TV monitor.
 

A picture of what it looks like on the TV screen. Arden is on the front-right of the picture (the only one NOT paying attention)

The girls might have been separated during class, but as soon as the class circles up they dash toward each other (they are the ones next to Ms. Vicki)

Arden cracked me up with her baton.  The class was learning how to twirl the baton with their wrists.  Instead of twirling, though, Arden did a stirring motion.  It was so funny to watch her because while all of the other girls were concentrating hard on getting the tricky motion down, Arden "stirred" her baton with a smug look.  She looked around like she was thinking, "What's the big deal?  I got this twirling thing down, piece of Cake!"
In this video you can see Arden and her baton.  She has to really think about making it go the right way.

And here's a video of Arden tapping.  If you have ever been around Arden then you know that she constantly walks on her tip-toes.  I suppose that's a good attribute for ballet, but not for tap!  The teacher had to really work with her to do a heel-toe maneuver.  She was hilarious to watch while she was figuring out how to walk on her heels!

After class Crystal and I take the kids somewhere to play.  This particular day we took the big kids skating, so the two ballerinas enjoyed a snow cone to pass the time. 

We will continue dance this Fall.  I'm excited to see her perform in a dance recital in the Spring.