Time for dance

One problem we've had this year is finding time for dance lessons or really, finding time for all of our activities including dance.  When W.'s dance school announced they were doing a new ballet this spring, I was full of dread.  Rehearsals would be right in the middle of baseball season. I realized it just couldn't be done, so I made Will choose between the performance and baseball. He chose baseball and I was glad. He loves ballet but he also likes baseball and I want him to be able to keep doing it, if he can.

I wonder how long he can do that though if he keeps progressing.  My husband and I joke that we want him to be held back but really I'm not joking.  He goes to lessons twice a week now and if he progresses to the next level, it will be three days a week next year.  We hope that he has to repeat a level and stay at a manageable twice a week.  I peeked in yesterday and they were doing - um - a move I have to look up - and Will looked good.  But again, I have no clue.  The teacher came up to me later and said "he's doing really well" and of course, I was thrilled.  But at the same time,  as I said to my husband only half-jokingly. I want to say, "I don't think he is doing really well, I think he needs to work on this stuff some more."

Oh well, there are worse problems than doing well at ballet.  I fear though that if he continues he will have to start making choices between ballet and the other activities he loves and I wonder what will happen then. 

The dance secret

My friend's son, S., who is 7 years old, started tap dancing about a month ago. He got into it because his mother had been taking tap lessons and he had been trying some of the steps and was pretty good. So the mom called up and asked me about our dance studio and off he went to tap lessons.  This is interesting because they're the kind of family who make a big distinction between "boy" things and "girl" things. (They have two boys). And the Dad is into sports and not very interested in music or dance. But the dad supported his son's desire to dance. 

The mom said that S. had asked that she not tell his friends he was taking dance lessons.  The only one she could tell would be my son W. because obviously he's a dancer already. So she never told his good friends until she overheard S. and one of his good friends talking about it.  "I thought it was a big secret?" she asked. "No, all my friends know about it," he told her. It turns out he was basically tap dancing down the halls and so everyone knew he was dancing anyway. But I suspect he thought he would be teased if he was taking dance lessons and then found out it was absolutely fine.  It's a little sad that it had to be a secret to begin with.  Would basketball lessons ever be a secret? But it's heartening that he learned it didn't have to be that way.

Watching Dance Wars

W. and I watched the premiere of "Dance Wars" on Monday with Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, two of the judges from "Dancing With the Stars."   It's a combination of "Dancing With the Stars," which we love, and "American Idol,"  which I could live without. It wasn't a very good show and I found myself missing "Dancing With the Stars" but on the other hand, W. liked it and I think anything that promotes dance is great.

For whatever else it's worth, the show did promote dancing. Just the bios of these young guys coming from farms and dancing and trying to dance before they enter dentist school or coming to the big city with a bag full of clothes and the desire to dance. 

So, we'll probably keep tuning in just to get that encouragement.  These shows always make W. want to get up and dance himself and that alone is worth it.

Here's a summary of Dance Wars from another blog http://blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2008/01/permierewatch-d.h

Dancing Boy

My younger son W. was always a dancer. He leaps, he twirls, he somersaults and cartwheels. He is a boy who is always in motion and dancing gives him a way of giving that motion form.
Two years ago when W. was 6 he announced that he wanted to take ballet. I knew his father wouldn’t be pleased, so I gently tried to talk him out of it. “How about basketball?” I suggested. “Sure, after ballet.” “Karate?” “Sure, if I can still take ballet.” He was adamant.
W. had been obsessed with ballet since we took him to see the Nutcracker at age 3. All the other kids were squirming in his seat but he was fascinated. Then when his two little girlfriends reenacted the ballet and told W. he couldn’t play, I stepped in and reminded them that the Nutcracker was a boy. I told them they had to include W. because boys do ballet too.
That apparently was enough encouragement for Will and off he went to ballet lessons. Now, W. is a boy who walks like a jock or a cowboy. He is full of energy – the kind of boy who always wants to know what’s next. He likes soccer, loves baseball and basketball but his true passion is dancing. And though we often say that he’s more break-dancer than ballet dancer, he has done well. He’s been in several productions of the Nutcracker as a party boy and an angel - the two sides of W. we always say.
He is one of three younger boys at his ballet school where there are dozens of girls and less than a dozen boys. And that makes me wonder, “Why aren’t more boys dancing?” Surely there are many boys like W. whose kinetic energy could find an outlet in arabesques and jetés. The answer is clearly that we aren’t giving boys the freedom to dance. We have a rigid idea of what it means to be a boy and fathers, mothers, children’s friends, even the media, reinforce those ideas.
I’ve heard from many parents who tell me that their son would love to dance but he won’t take lessons. I’ve also met many parents who have told me the sad story of their son who began lessons but stopped dancing because of teasing from their friends. Dancing is for girls and boys who dance can be branded as “sissy” even if no one ever says those words. Our definition of what it is to be a boy is evolving but we’re still playing by the same rules and that’s sad for other boys like W. who want to be that dancer leaping across the stage but even at age six or seven or eight, are aware that it’s not an accepted path to take.
My husband and I are not ballet dancers and we have little knowledge about ballet ourselves. While I can help my children with piano and my husband can teach them to throw a ball, we can offer little help to W. except to encourage him. And so we have become his cheerleaders, with my husband, who was so skeptical about it in the beginning, often being the one who takes W. to classes and rehearsals. That is all W. needs to leap as high as he can.


Jeté: Throwing steps in which the dancer jumps from one foot to the other and one leg is brushed into the air and appears to be thrown.


Arabesque: A basic pose in ballet that is done in profile in which the dancer extends one leg straight behind and one arm extends in front and behind.

Source: American Ballet Theater’s Ballet Dictionary: http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html