Dance Mum

Towards the end of last year Eliza was just wanting to do dance. She had seen her friends' dance costumes and looked longingly at them. She even got to wear Elodie's ballet dress for a bit.

Doing her dance pose

 One afternoon I walked past her in her room listening to some music and trying to dance to it. She paused, slumped down and said out loud 'I just wish I knew how to dance.' She didn't know that I was standing there. This broke my heart! I felt like the worst Mum. But it also made me stop and think about what is important. While I'm not keen on the idea of Eliza dancing and sitting through the dance concerts, I know it is important to her. While I would love her to do AFL because I like to sit and watch that, I know that she isn't so keen on the idea and doesn't have the confidence to play it like her brothers do. I don't want Eliza to grow up thinking 'why did Mummy and Daddy let the boys do things that they were interested in, but not me.' So I asked around with friends whose kids danced. 

Action Dance had an open day and we were free so I took Eliza along. At this stage we had decided that Eliza could start Term 2 if she liked it. This would let her settle into Kindy routine and not be too tired Term 1 at school. She joined in with the dance lesson for jazz class.

I was surprised that she got up and had a go. I was kinda expecting her to be too shy to try. But she proved me wrong. Very proud of her!
She even gave the routine a really good go!

Doing the warm up

While she was dancing I started to feel that she should start Term 1. Again chatting with James and with some other friends they said that starting Term 1 helps them make friendships and I didn't want Eliza to feel behind when she did join. We asked her if she wanted to join now or Term 2 and Eliza chose to start now. So we bought her the costume and then the next week went and got her jazz shoes. She is very excited to start! Her first lesson will be tomorrow after her first day of kindy. She is going to be exhausted but I'm sure will love it!

Dance pose

So I am now officially a dance Mum. Don't know how I will go with the performances and needing to do hair and make up but I'm sure it will be a learning curve for us both. I know it already has been for me.

Have fun dancing your heart out baby girl. You are going to be amazing!