Hopie the Ballerina

I am so proud of my little Hopie! Today she FINALLY participated fully in her ballet class and actually did it with a SMILE on her face!!! A few days ago we were practicing the arabesque position and she mentioned how proud her teacher was going to be of her. I had to think for a minute what she was talking about because she seemed excited to go to class for the first time ever. I agreed with her that her teacher would be proud and we practiced a few other positions for her to show her teacher. I thought the excitement was a momentary illusion on both our parts, but this morning she had no complaints about putting on her dance attire and going to class. Part of it, I'm sure, is that I bribed her with a treat for after class if she did everything her teacher asked, but the optimistic side of me wants to believe that bribery played only a very small role in her decision be so cooperative.

Here they were practicing leaving the room like they will leave the stage when they do their part in Swan Lake. I was thinking that Hope would skip the performance this time around since she was being so difficult and didn't want to dance, but after speaking with her just now she says she wants to do it. Yay!

Sorry about the picture quality.

Hope has her back to the camera.  Eden and I took turns distracting the class. She would run onto the dance floor with me chasing after her and then I would pop around a corner and snap a picture. :)

Here the teacher is explaining why the girls can't hang from the ballet bar like monkeys. Hope in on the far right.

And here is how Eden spent most of the class.

Finally I took her outside because I was afraid her crying would irritate the other kids and Hope would decide not to participate anymore.

Here Eden is practicing one of the dance moves. She actually loves to practice at home with Hope and I'm thinking that soon she'll be ready to be in her own class.

Here she said she wanted to go home. I guess that is where she thinks she's headed.

It certainly was a great start to the day, and a million times better than dance class days in the past few weeks. Hope was very pleased at how proud I was of her and said, "I'm awesome, huh?" She is one AWESOME ballerina. Here's to hoping it continues!!! Fingers crossed.