Toddler Ballerina’s

I can’t quite believe it but I now have a toddler girl and when I say girl I mean one who likes pretty things, jewellery, calls things Preeeeety and has the most adorable smile in the world – she likes to think she is in charge too…..she’s not but I let her think so some of the time. Here she is:

So when Chrissy, our resident ballet teacher suggested we ran a toddler ballet class I scratched my head, slept on it, then thought, what the heck, it could work. We’ve been running classes for a few weeks and it’s been a whole heap of toddler tantrums, cuddles, smiles, loud music and cups of tea! I’ll be honest my small one often does her own thing, she appears to have my independant streak 😉 but you know what, thats all allowed in my studio. What I find is that small girl may not participate in 100% of the class but she certainly takes it in and practises later on. Suddenly she’ll start doing her plies and stretching up to the sky and before I know it she has done half her ballet class whilst I’m cooking dinner.

During classes we point our toes, practise plies, go to the jungle, pretend to be starfish on the floor, act like puppets, use hoops, wands and musical instruments, march like soldiers and my toddlers favourite: gallop like horses. It’s a mix of ballet exercises, animal noises, musical fun and a lot of chatter. At present it’s all girls in the class but we’d love some boys!

This class is not just for the toddlers, parental involvement is needed, so yes you get a bit of a workout yourself. Chrissy is great at encouraging us all to move and feel the ballet love.

Afterwards we all migrate to the lounge for a cuppa, some chat and let the toddlers loose on the toys. This is often the best bit, a chance to unwind, chat about how awful or wonderful your week has been and get some support, that’s what we are all about.