Observation

This week was observation at Banana's dance school. Why, you may be asking, would I wish to sit through 3 hours of ballet instruction after I just spent a week watching ballet at the Nutcracker? (I assure you, Kat asked me that very question more than once, as she had to sit with me.) Well, for a couple of reasons. One, because I'm a mom and this is what mom's do. They watch their children. I adore mine, and love to watch them do anything. In my humble opinion, which is not biased at all, Banana is a beautiful dancer and I enjoy watching her. Secondly, watching a class take place, observing instruction, is quite different from watching a performance. I learn a lot during that observation time. I learn how Banana is doing in her "learning"...how she relates to and responds to her teacher, how she behaves in a class setting, and how she has progressed in her skill.

I only observed two classes this week, both ballet. I didn't get to see Jazz, I'll do that in the spring. The first ballet class I watched was with Miss J., the ballet director, and owner of the school. This is a younger class, and Banana is the oldest and one of the most advanced. It was interesting to see the difference in that class and the Thursday class with girls her age/level. The second class, today, was with "Miss Andrea", Andrea of "Living a Legacy". Andrea and I became blog friends, but now we are "real life friends" too. And she is a wonderful teacher...Banana really loves her.

So, here are a few pictures from Ballet class. There is one of Miss J. giving corrections, one of Miss Andrea teaching, and one of her with Banana. She was concerned that Banana was almost taller than her. But I think they look beautiful together!

Banana is the tall one in brown. The other girls in this picture are in green...color denotes level.

I thought this one was awesome...I got her in the air!

Today was also Christmas party day. The girls played dirty Santa at the end of class.

Banana and her awesome teacher!