For the second consecutive year, my kids participated in the Montgomery ballet’s Fairy Tale Ballet Camp. It’s a compromise between doing summer lessons and skipping ballet over the summer, and it’s one Sam and Caroline both enjoy. It buys Scott and I a good measure of sanity, because Caroline’s age group meets three times a week (M-W-F from 9-12) and Sam’s meets twice a week (Tu.-Th. 9-12). Although it means having to have a kid up there every single day for three weeks, it also means a morning spent with only the other child at home all morning.

Also, they put on an adorable little performance at the end. Sam’s group did the music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The girls were Titania’s fairies. The boys were Oberon’s fairies. Proof that this is a ballet crowd? Not one parent batted an eyelash even though the ballet teacher hesitated over the word ‘fairies’ at the last second. There are now three boys who go to ballet, though only two attend the camp. I left off Thorin’s picture (and no, I didn’t just change his name; I think his parents and I would be good friends if we ever had time to sit and chat) and everybody else’s because I didn’t ask permission to post them. But look how serious Sam is. Other kids were grinning, either beaming or nervous-smiling. But Sam looked like this the whole time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline’s group did the doll’s dance from Coppelia, and they wore the costumes used by the polichenelles (aka polis)  in The Nutcracker. (Caroline’s current ambition in life is to stick with ballet long enough to get to be a poli). Caroline told me all about her part, how she was a doll and had to move like a robot because dolls have stiff hinges. She got to wear two buns on either side of her head, not ala Princess Leia, but more ala a Swiss Mountain Girl of yore.

 

 

See? When they aren’t trying to kill each other, Caroline and Sam really are best friends.

And so passes ballet camp for another year. This is the last year Caroline isn’t too old to participate, but Miss Keyana says she’s going to come up with something to do with the mid-range age girls. Something in between the level of a ballet camp and a summer intensive. Truly, I hope she does. Because Caroline is very sad at the thought of not getting to do this next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, at the end of her performance, before she would even let me get pictures, Caroline did this:

About jesterqueen: Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.