Ballet

I wrote before about how our music, art and basketball activities finished for the year.  Next to finish was ballet, which had its final event last night.

Mulan is an old hand at ballet.  When she was three she decided that ballet was her thing, and she had her first lesson at 3 1/4.  She started having regular classes just before her fourth birthday, and has been doing it ever since.

Here in New Zealand, since Term 2 of last year, Mulan has been having lessons twice a week at Ballet Theatre of Auckland.  The teacher, Estelle, is brilliant -- both really wonderful with the children and also very experienced at ballet.  Knowing how pushy ballet can be, I have been delighted to read Estelle's posts on BTOA's Facebook page about being sensible with stretching and training, and not overdoing things.  Having also watched some lessons, I feel I can trust Estelle to get the right balance in training.

In the third term this year, Mulan sat the Grade 3 Cecchetti exam, gaining honours.  Last year she sat the Grade 2 exam, also gaining honours.

After watching Mulan for many years, Miya decided at the beginning of this term that she also wanted to do ballet.  And she is loving it.

This term, the focus for BTOA has been their production of The Little Mermaid, and for the past couple of months we have been going to practices three times a week.

Finally, last night, at The Rose Centre in Belmont, they performed the show.  In my admittedly very biased opinion, it was excellent -- very professionally done and very enjoyable to watch.  All the girls did an awesome job.

The main parts of the show were performed by a few of Estelle's teenage students, who all look like they have several years of experience.  They dance en pointe, and are very elegant.

Mulan is one of half a dozen pre-teen grade-level students.  During the show they performed a few dances together in a group.  Mulan was the only grade-level student who also had a solo dance in the performance, where she danced during the wedding scene.

Miya was one of four pre-grade students.  They also danced a couple of dances together in a group, all looking very cute.

What else can I say, but I had a very proud daddy moment, watching both my girls performing so beautifully up on stage.  Well done to both of them!