Friday, June 13, 2008

My Ballerina Girl

She started DANCING before she was born.
She kicked and twirled and made her presence known.
We would watch her knees, feet and elbows
dance across my abdomen as I lay on the couch in the evenings.
She was born and became known as "Scooter",
almost immediately.

She Began LEAPING on my lap at ONE MONTH...
We had to buy a "jumper" for her by the time
she was six months old...My arms were tired!

She FINALLY agreed to Potty Train
just so she could start

BALLET!!!

At three and a half years old, she began lessons at
Kasia Cultural Arts Academy in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

She LOVED it from the start...
such a graceful little doll.

Here she is in costume as one of the
"Village Children"
for her first performance:

PINOCCHIO
in May of 2003
This was the costume for the "Jazz" section of
the recital...They danced to "Buttercup"





Here's the costume for the May 2004 Performance of:
THUMBELINA
This was actually Mother's Day at the beautiful
graduated assisted living community where
Grammy and Pappy live.... As their gift,
Scooter and Tilly danced for Grammy
while Daddy played the piano.
This is a regular event...
(the girls think that auditorium is theirs)
The Next year she decided to try...

TAP DANCING !!!
She did a patriotic duo with her teacher,
it was wonderful.

She was also the TITLE Character in:

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
I was SO impressed that she was able to make a
SOLO entrance, in front of the curtain...
Even though I watched her practice this for months,
I got so choked-up watching her.
She had such poise and knew her dances so well.
This was May 2005
She was only SIX years old.
She amazes me

The following year, 2006, she continued at Kasia...
"Miss Catherine" who ran the school was so kind,
Scooter loved her very much.
She got her start at Kasia Cultural Arts...
The Ballet that year was:

The Littlest Angel
My dancer did her part Beautifully

In 2006-2007
Scooter decided to try Gymnastics...
She loved it and they would have pushed her...
I wasn't into "competitive gymnastics".
This was our Mother's Day photo in 2007...
Notice the Ballet Pose...
You can take the child out of dance class,
but you can't make her stop performing!

I just noticed Tilly and Snorkie are doing a cute little pose, too!



She came back to Ballet for 2007-2008.
Kasia was now closed.
Miss Catherine passed away in August of '07.
We signed up with
The American Repertory Ballet's
Princeton Ballet School.

Awesome school...Live pianists in Every class...
very Classical...very formal.

She had a Three Hour Audition to try out for
the ARB's Holiday performances of:

The Nutcracker!
She was cast as one of the children at the party...
She was on stage for 20 minutes of the first act and had
four different dances to learn...plus some acting!
She was in four performances.
I have no photos of her in costume...
This was a free photo of Scooter with the girl who played
"Marie" and the young Man who played the "Nutcracker"
in the First of two performances at the State Theatre
in New Brunswick, NJ on 22 December 2007.
(notice she looks tired...we had to be at the theatre by 9am)
She had another show to do that night, we got home LATE!

My Ballerina Doll finished the year with the school's recital...
a Two and a Half Hour, Three act production of:

Don Quixote
The children in her level at the Princeton school played
little Spanish Princes and Princesses.
She was in the third act...

Snorkie liked it but kept asking, "the END?"
Eventually the end came and the applause was strong.
She had a marvelous time.


This is My Scooter (right)
with her best "bud" and possible twin (SF)...
after the dress rehearsal.


Next year Scooter and Tilly are going to try:



Horse Back Riding!






13 comments:

  1. Love it! That first picture with the giant bow in the hair is a classic.

    So cute to see her costumes over time.

    Wish us luck! My son has his ballet debut tomorrow night!

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  2. What a beautiful girl. I do think that performance is something you are born with and she obviously got those genes...wow! What fun she has had.

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  3. It's amazing! I know perfectly the demand of Classic Dance Professors.
    Scooter has a great will maybe a vocation to keep dancing at such level.
    Professors are very rigorous, harsch and exigent, it isn't always easy, but those little girls are so envolved in this Art that they accept these demands.

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  4. Cute pictures!
    2 of my girls would like dance classes, but all that is offered here is the dancing you'd see at half time of a football game. Not interested in getting my girls into that though. So, we started the oldest girl in Karate. lol, atleast she'll know how to defend herself.

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  5. Darling photos.

    I love when a child finds a natural niche like that from a young age...something they really enjoy doing.

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  6. Wow! She is a born dancer. These pictures are amazing. I have to admit my favorite is the one all in pink with the giant pink bow! And Scooter is such a cute nickname!

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  7. When she's famous we will all be able to say we knew her way backwhen.

    She is beautiful!

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  8. Wonderful pictures! A lovely post. I loved ballet!

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  9. Born to dance!

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  10. She is just gorgeous and what a great gift! How exciting she has been able to do so many dances at such a young age. I had to laugh at how she danced in your belly and bounced so little. Did she have a johnny jump up?

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  11. Those are great Pictures! Can't wait to see her on Broadway in a few years ;)

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  12. A homeschooling friend of mine has 4 daughters - the first three were within 5 years of each other and all really into ballet. The second oldest was asked by the Kirov to go to St. Petersburg for the year after she graduated for some special program they have, and she loved it! I think she's going back this year.

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  13. That is just so cool. I wish I had recorded things like that in photograph of my girls.This is my Teen-Angel's last year in high scool. You can bet I'll be recording every thing in photographs now.
    Great blog.

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