Belle's Second Year of Ballet

Anabella decided she didn't want to continue with tap this year, but she did want to do ballet. She had such a good experience at Spotlight Dance last year, we decided to keep her at the same studio. Even though the studio is in Manassas and only about 8 miles from us, given that her class is Friday at 5pm, with traffic lights, we had to allow 30 minutes to get her there on time. Her class only met for 30 minutes, so if you do the math, you'll see we actually spent more time on the road more than at the studio. We told her that unless she does tap and ballet next year, she will have to switch to a Gainesville studio.

This was from one of her early practices in September, demonstrating at home what she learned that day. 

At her dress rehearsal in May, she wanted to stay to watch the friends from her ballet class do their tap routine and said she wished she had done tap after all. We're hopeful she will choose to do both next year so that she can stay at Spotlight, which I really do like.  

Bring a friend day in early October; she took our neighbor Lily.

Getting a stamp at the end of class- always a highlight.

Dinner afterwards at our favorite pizza place, Mama Mias, another highlight. 

Mid-winter she requested some "legwarmers" and Maw got her several pairs for her birthday. Always a fashionista, that girl. 

I almost missed her in this picture. It's so hard to take pictures of practice, but you can see from that smile that she was having a good time. 

Like most classes, the teacher plays a huge role. Unfortunately, I don't think Anabella liked her teacher as much as she did last year. She still had a good experience, but I think her teacher from last year had a more structured class and seemed to inspire the girls more. At least Anabella anyway. She talked and talked last year about "Ms. Jennifer" and honestly, I can't even remember this teacher's name. This is the assistant pictured here, but she didn't speak too much about her either. Anabella would see Ms. Jennifer this year and run to embrace her with a big hug. I'm definitely going to seek her out next year to see if she can take her class again.

Here she is practicing her routine the day their costumes arrived:

Stayed tuned for the dress rehearsal and recital coming soon!!