Let's Dance!

When Child One was younger, they wanted to be a cheerleader. I think this is because they would see the cheerleaders practice in the mall area at my wife's high school. But when you are three, there are not really cheerleading classes you can sign up for, so we signed them up for gymnastics at the Y, since this would let them practice the skills they could later use in cheerleading.

One day, though (as I remember it), they saw all the girls go by in their tutus on the way to dance class. "I want to do that," they said. So we switched them to dance class. (This would be when they were around 4½.) We put them in the 4-6 class, but after one session, the teacher suggested bumping them down to the 3-year-old class because their coordination skills weren't quite there yet.

May 2023 recital

They did dance class for several months, culminating in the May 2023 recital, where their class danced to the song from the "Enchanted Tiki Room" at Disney. (They do a big recital, where all the kids from all the dance classes at the Y show off, from age 2 up to age 17.) I would not say Child One is an extraordinary dancer, but as the lone four-year-old in a class of three-year-olds, they were the best at sticking to their routine in front of a large audience! At the end of the recital, all the dancers get a rose from their teacher, which they really treasured. They were also very into the bow tie they got to wear.

Unfortunately, we had to pull them out of dance shortly after that, because summer travel meant we were going to miss more dance classes than we were going to make. We intended to put them back into class once things calmed down, but once they were out, they insisted they didn't want to do it anymore! Often, they like things to be a certain way.

But then in October, they were digging through stuff in their room and found the rose. "When am I going to get another rose?" they asked. "Well," I said, "never if you're not in dance class." So they demanded I sign them back up! There wasn't room in the class, actually, but the dance instructor let them overenroll. (She's great, I really like her. She has been teaching dance at our YMCA for over twenty years!)

May 2024 recital

So this May, their second recital rolled around. Now in the 4-6 class, they did the title song from The Beauty and the Beast; they were the Beast, while all the girls in the class were Belle. They got a vest with gold buttons to supplement their bow tie, which they were very into. And they racked up another rose! Again, the class was very nervous in front of our large audience, but Child One held their own. It was definitely a proud dad moment watching them up there in front of all these other kids. 

Hopefully this time they don't drop out for six months!