The Nut has been Crackered

Benny and Sadie had their dance performance on Saturday. It was insane.

The image above was taken by Andi Grant (of the amazing Andi Grant Photography) and shows them wearing their "Drosselmeier and Doll" outfits. Benny was the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeier and Sadie was the ballerina doll that he gives to Clara as a present. We weren't allowed to videotape the show, but here's a video of them doing it at a local nursing home:



Here's Sadie hanging out backstage in her doll outfit:



And Benny hanging out with the boys' tap class, playing Nintendo:



Sadie had her number with her little girl class. They were the mice that come in after Clara falls asleep on the sofa next to the Christmas tree. They come in and do a little mousey dance and then when the bells chime midnight they go into the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas song. It was very cute and there was a bit with red garland-covered hula hoops.

Here are the mice:



Here's a clip of the mice performing at the nursing home. There were only three of the girls at this performance but it'll give you an idea:



Here's a picture of the mice after the show:



But who's that guy with the mice? The guy in the white jumpsuit? That's Benny, bringing back his role as Elvis. This time he sang and tap-danced to "Santa Claus is Back in Town" and brought the house down.



The children loved the performance. I didn't get to watch -- I was backstage losing my mind with costume changes and mania. I love, love, love their Drosselmeier and Doll dance, especially Sadie's extended passe and their lift at the end. I wish I had been able to watch that, but at least Dan and Ahno did. I did get to sneak around to the house side and watch Benny's Elvis though. It was pretty spectacular.

Those children really know how to entertain and exhaust a loving parent.



Note: Andi Grant is an exceptionally gifted photographer. I couldn't believe the really excellent shots she got of Benny and Sadie when she brought her studio to the dance studio and set up. She was sweet to the children, fast on the shutter button, and a dream to work with. To see all the pictures she took of Benny and Sadie, go to her Art of Dance gallery page, click on "Dross and Doll." The password is doll. Thank you Andi Grant for your amazing dance photography.

Dance Recital Videos

Well, eventually I do deliver. Here are Benny and Sadie's contributions to the "Let's Go to the Hop" show at the Art of Dance Academy, filmed during the dress rehearsal by their unlikely-to-hop but happy-to-watch mother.



Benny as Elvis:



Sadie in a poodle skirt:



The most horrifying sewing task I have ever attempted modelled by the most awesome tap dancer in the known world and his beloved ballerina sister:

Dance Recital DONE

The dance recital was yesterday. It is now, therefore, done. :) Here are some pictures I took at the dress rehearsal:

Princess Dance Camp at Art of Dance Academy

Do you have an aspiring ballerina at home, like I do?

Do not delay. Sign your small ballerina up for Princess Camp at the Art of Dance Academy while there are still spaces open! Art of Dance Academy puts on six sessions of princess dance camp every summer, and they are excrutiatingly popular. Why so popular? I'll tell you why.

The girls arrive dressed up as their favorite princesses. They do ballet, tap, jazz, pretend play, art, and music. At the end of the week, they put on a DARLING little show for the parents, in all the dance styles plus gymnastics! The energy in the studio during princess camp is amazing -- all these little girls butterflying around, chirping away in their tiny little girly voices, swooping around the dance floor, bouncing on the trampoline, tapping in their little black patent leather tap shoes. It is ADORABLE -- you can hear the dreams coming true.

This year the Art of Dance Academy sponsored our Homeschool Science Fair by donating one week of princess dance camp and a pair of ballet shoes. The lucky winner of the "Marie Curie Prize for Elegant Hypothesis" will be tappytapping away with the rest of the happy little girls this summer. Here she is; isn't she cute?

Have fun at princess camp Olivia! Who knows what Miss Monique has cooked up for this fantastic princess dance camp this year? I know Sadie will be there, sparkles and bows in place, ready to prance around and live out her fantasies for one magical week.

Benny does Elvis at the "I Love Dance" Competition

Benny informed me this morning after taking one bite of sandwich that he will not be eating peanut butter anymore. According to his book of gross facts (thanks Grammy!) the manufacturers of peanut butter allow 220 bugs. Which, to Benny, seems like too many. Well, it would be, if it were 220 bugs per jar. And I could not convince him otherwise. So he ate oranges. He ate oranges all morning. It was an orange kind of day.

Across the street from the hotel downtown. His oranges. My coffee:



In the boys' dressing room, each child with a DS also had another child looking on. We were imagining what life was like in the girls' dressing room. Hair spray, lip gloss, little rhinestones being applied to the corners of the eyes, etc. In the boys' dressing room it was all about the video games.



Here's Benny posing in his Art of Dance Academy jacket next to the sign which was demanding that fun be had.



Also legislated at this contest: hooting and hollering, and video taping. We were informed that hooting and hollering was not appropriate, because we would not be hooting and hollering for Baryshnikov. My response was that if I were Baryshnikov's mother, I would definitely be hooting and hollering. But they told us if we were caught video taping or using a camera, points would be taken away from the children. So... no video.



His performance was fantastic. Everyone starting clapping along with "Hound Dog" and he winked and pointed at the female judges, Elvis-ing it up big time. He was adorable, entertaining, right on time with his tapping, and right on key with his singing. Amazing. He had no nerves, no hesitation, no mis-steps -- it was really fantastic, if I say so myself, AND I DO. The crowd was very into it -- of course it's a very fun, familiar song, and he was being very hilarious about it all.

Here's a shot of the awards ceremony:



Benny was the only child in the "Song and Dance" category in the 6-8 year old age group. So he picked up a trophy for showing up today, and that was nice. However, they also gave 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for the high scoring acts across all categories in the 6-8 year old age group, and he placed second overall! That was truly shocking -- there were a dozen acts and he is such a beginner. I'm sure it was his funniness and all the silly gesturing and hamming he did, and also the fact that he was wearing such an AWESOME JACKET. Hehehe. So, his trophy for his category is in his left hand, his second place high score is in his right.



Here's a shot of the Art of Dance kids getting certificates from Miss Monique.



And a picture of Benny and Miss Monique. Not every teacher in the world could have gotten Benny lined up to perform this well today, and not ever person in the world would have wanted to try:



The competition was run by I Love Dance and it was very nicely put together, if a little circumspect for my taste. I prefer to yell and scream and stomp my feet an act foolish in support of little children doing performing arts. However, in all other aspects, it was a charming little gathering. I wish I could post a video of the performance -- I know that I will never forget it. Hilarious, darling, confident, and beautifully executed. Well done Benny!

Elvis Day

Keep us in your mind today as we do our first dance competition. Benny is singing and tap-dancing to Elvis' song "Hound Dog."

First we had to make the jacket. This presented a lot of new challenges to ME, as I am a stranger to menswear, and this kind of fabric was peculiar in shape and behavior.



At one point I believe I threatened Polly Pocket:



But at last, with Ahno's help, the jacket was finished:



This morning we ate a solid breakfast of whatever he wanted (he chose a PB&J) and we packed some oranges and waters, and his gold jacket and tap shoes, and we are off to the contest. I will fill you in on the details later. I am sure it will be an entertaining day!

Sadie's Ballet Recital

Sometimes pink is enough to make you happy forever.

Sadie had her ballet recital. It was, possibly, the best day of her life thus far. She richly, deeply enjoyed every minute of it. She was not afraid to be on the big stage at the Roper Theater. In fact, she was thrilled to be out there, and wanted to go back and do it all over again the minute it was finished.

Her ballet school, the Art of Dance Academy, performed a show based on The Wizard of Oz. There were great moments and not so great moments, as I'm sure is true with any performance involving exclusively children. Sometimes the screw-ups are the most entertaining part of the show, right? No one can remember the perfectly executed numbers, but everyone remembers when little Billy dragged little Sally by the hair into her position before spinning her in a pirouette.

Sadie was a munchkin, along with the rest of the girls in her little class. They all wore variations of floofy pink tutus, with floofy pink feathery headdress things on their heads. They were pretty amazingly cute. Here they are on stage, doing their munchkin thing:



One of the awesome parts of the show, for us, was that Benny got to go up on the stage with the magician that was entertaining the crowd between set changes. He was the volunteer assistant from the audience. It was his job, I think, to distract us while the magician was doing magiciany things that changed a dove into a dog. Benny was spectacular -- he danced, he pontificated, he was completely charming. And happy. He got to hold the dove and pet the dog, and when he was doing his wild crazy dance, everyone was screaming with laughter and cheering for him. It was hilarious. He has no self-consciousness, no uncertainy, no embarrassment. Sometimes, that's a hindrance, but sometimes it's awesome.

Sadie's bravery was incredible that day too, fearless little showboater that she was. She stayed backstage with the backstage moms, all through the show after her part, behaving herself on her own -- watching videos and coloring with her friends. And she was a beautiful little ballerina.

This is not the sport that I would have chosen for her -- I've mentioned before about my hesitations regarding ballet. But she loves it so much, how can I argue? She's meant to wear pink floof.

The Ballet Dilemma

I will admit to certain prejudices concerning ballet. When I was a teenager, I had barn boots on my feet and horses on my mind. I neither understood nor appreciated the ballerina mindset. So now that I have this very pink, very glitter, very ballerina-obsessed girl child, can I swallow my preconceptions and put her in a leotard?

Sadie is three. She spent her Christmas vacation in Wisconsin doing this:



What's happening in this picture? That's Sadie, in the pink, and Sydney, her cousin, in the lavender. They're wearing their ballerina dress-up clothes, provided by Grammy, and they're dancing along with the videos of Sydney's mom (Sadie's Aunt Terri) doing her dance recitals when she was a teen. They did this for hours. Wearing gloriously impractical sparkly shoes and copying all the moves they saw the kids do on TV.

Since then, Sadie has spent so much time in her ballerina costume that the tulle actually wore off. For her birthday, she got several more princess/ballerina/dancing/fairy costumes, which are all her "ballerina clothes" and she wears them daily. Her favorite movies are "Barbie in The Twelve Dancing Prinesses" and "Barbie in The Nutcracker." Getting her out of her leotard produces a noise that makes you think she's being eviscerated.

Can I still argue that she doesn't really want to learn ballet?

In my mind, and I fully accept that I am ignorant and prejudiced, signing her up for ballet is as good as asking for her to be melancholy and body-obsessed. In my mind, and yes I remember that she is three and I am being neurotic, she takes ballet and she's off the road that leads her to be a senator, and astrophysicist, an admiral, a heart surgeon -- WHATEVER.

So, I went looking for a ballet school. Looking for a ballet school was like looking for a karate school. I wanted somewhere between serious and ridiculous. The ridiculous school is the one that turns out ballet students like McDonald's hamburgers. Where they only want to enroll students, collect fees, roll them through the recitals, and pass them on to more classes, even if their moves look like old ladies fighting off bees. Serious is where the children walk around looking like they're sucking in their stomachs, the teachers shriek, "What's wrong with you today!" and anyone whose hair comes out of her bun gets to scrub the bathroom.Okay, I'm exaggerating on both ends, maybe, but you get my point. I visited schools. I was uninfatuated.

Then I found Art of Dance Academy on the internet and learned that Miss Monique is the art director there. Miss Monique taught Benny's dance class when he was at Preschool for the Arts, over in Virginia Beach. I had a feeling that if I went and put Sadie in Miss Monique's hands, that nothing bad would happen to her. And after our school visit, I was convinced. The "Dance Discovery" class that Sadie has joined is so delightful! They do half ballet and half tap, and it is all very sweet, light, fun, positive, and dear.

I wanted a place where Sadie could put on "ballerina clothes" and prance around with other girls. Where she wouldn't be criticized but also wouldn't be ignored. I don't know whether she'll stick with ballet or whether this ballerina phase will be outgrown, but I do feel good taking her to the Art of Dance AcademyArt of Dance Academy -- after getting her first ballet shoes from Miss Monique, Sadie gave her a big hug and said, "We best friends." Nice! Sadie never hugs anyone but Dan. Here they are after Sadie's first class on Thursday -- I think it's a great connection!