My daughter wanted to take dance lessons when she was two. She started ballet at a city park shortly after turning three, which was the youngest they would take students.
When we moved to Oregon, we found a dance teacher that was awesome and she added tap to the ballet. When we moved to Salem two years ago, we knew it was going to be hard getting her to the dance class because her new school got out about the same time the dance classes started 20 minutes away.
The summer before our move, my mother in law was in the World Beat Festival with her clogging group. (Dance as passed down from my mother in law to my wife to my daughter.) After the cloggers was an Irish dance troupe and my daughter stayed to watch while my son got antsy and went in search of the Japanese tent. The teacher gave her spiel and said, “Come up and talk to me if you are interested.” My daughter convinced my wife she had to talk with her and they did. My daughter was just at the cut off for the youngest student and my wife for the information about the classes.
We fretted about doing dance three times a week once we moved. Then we found out the ballet and tap teacher was not going to be teaching, so the Irish dance was the only option.
She was young and little compared to the others in the class, but as the only very beginner, she got private lessons to learn steps and routines. After a year her brother took an intro class and he wasn’t ready for lessons. After sitting through a few feis this last year and being enamores by the sparkly vests boys get to wear, he decided he was ready for lessons.
His enthusiasm is starting to wane, he was saying it was boring and asking if he could quit today. The best quote, “You can just buy me sparkly vests,” when queried about that part of dancing.
We agreed to finishing out the year and doing one recital.
Before heading out to class, we needed to film a movie he has wanted to shoot for a coupe days. He was gonna be Kingpin from Spider-Man, which requires being fancy, so he got dressed up. As we went straight from filming to the car for class, he went with the outfit. Part way through class he took off the coat, then the vest and finally the tie.
At the last break, he took the tie and slipped it on, then the vest and finally the coat.
I am grateful for dance, and style, and kids being who they are.
