My daughter LOVES ballet. It seems from the first moment she watched a video of a ballet she was driven to become a ballerina. At age 3 we enrolled her into a local dance school that specializes in ballet. We also took her to one or two Ballet performances every year since then. Her first was the Nutcracker followed by Midsummer Night’s dream. Even at 3 and 4 years old, she was very attentive to every detail of the performance. The spectacle, the beauty of the sets, and strangely, the quality of the dancing! Yes, she has often critiqued some dancers saying that they did not dance “pretty enough”.
At age 6, we moved our daughter from the local dance school to where the action is, the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) School. The school resides next to the performance hall where she has seen the grand performances of the past.
Since those early days, and upon seeing her first performance of The Nutcracker, my daughter has always told us that she will be in it someday. Her goal is to be Clara and later the Prima Ballerina. This summer she tried out for a part in the ballet. Due to her size, enthusiasm and skill, she was chosen for her first part in the Nutcracker this season. She will be playing the part of “Little Girl”. At the time this was announced we were on a family trip in Arizona, but on returning, her best friend’s mom gave us the news. I waited until the next morning to tell her and she responded with a big “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!” Even with this response, I felt she was still containing herself. I know I responded equally if not more dramatically after I heard the news.
My wife and I are not stage parents by any means, except that we facilitate and participate in our daughter’s dreams as best we can. We allow her to participate in the manifestation of her own dreams, and facilitate bringing them into reality. Before the audition, we told her to do her best, and if she does not get in this time, she will eventually with hard work and persistence. My daughter accepted those terms and agreed that it was OK if she did not make it in this time, after all there were 95 students auditioning from her grade level. Though we were told that the competition was fierce, and that some parents were demonstrating an “out for blood” attitude for their precious ballerinas. I believe what wins out ultimately is intention with Grace. Disappointment is not the only motivation factor to encourage improvement as some gurus may tell you. It is love for the craft that drives more than anything else. You choose the experience you want to have, then when you have it, you choose another. Kids appear to be natural at this. THey do not put too much thought into it. Yes they get disappointed, but they don’t stop, unless of course you train them to do so.
