A Lot of Ballet-hoo

Awaiting the start of the magic.

L has been taking a ballet class for a couple of months. Her last class was on Tuesday and the class always ends with a special "performance" for the parents. This basically amounts to a row of chairs being added to a wall of the classroom where we parents all could crowd in with our collective $40,000 worth of video and photography equipment and watch a dozen 3- and 4-year-olds wave their arms vaguely over their heads. For L, however, a performance at the Kennedy Center could have held no greater honor.


L actually didn't know I was coming; I asked Stacy not to say anything to her since I wasn't sure I could get away from work for the 11AM performance. But I was able to flee my 9-to-5 and I was waiting in the studio complex lobby when Stacy arrived with our neighbor Grandma Donna, brother N, and of course, the prima herself. She squealed and bolted across the lobby when she saw me. She flung herself over my knees so hard I assumed she probably ruptured a spleen or something. But Daddy's mere presence is evidently a very potent anesthesia.



The "performance" was everything you would hope such a thing would be. Lots of little pink puppets in princess-style tutus, all randomly focused and varyingly attentive. Some turning right, some left. Some deciding that sitting down suddenly seem the best of interpretive choices. Synchronization was not a strong point. Grace and poise? A couple of years down the road. But it was dripping with sugary sweet cuteness.

L twirled. L kicked. L sashayed across the dance floor with her arms over her head. (I'm a little embarrassed to use a word like "sashay", but could think of nothing better to describe it.) She was, of course, brilliant. And she patiently sat while all the other less talented students were awkwardly paraded in front of some very easily pleased critics. At the end of the heart-pounding 30 minutes, L was rewarded by Grandma Donna (who I must say has much more discerning tastes than all the other audience members) with a single pink rose, and she got to have her photo taken with her instructor. (It will be in her portfolio.) Her triumph was complete.

And just when you'd think the day couldn't get anymore glorious, Stacy announced that the post-curtain party would be celebrated at McDonald's - an establishment long associated with the fine toddler arts.