Diary of a Pinocchio school girl

Bea with her make-up. It's the only time of the year the girls can wear mascara and red lipstick and they LOVE it! 

 Bea was a darling little school girl in the production of Pinocchio this last week.  She danced on Tuesday and came to the performance to watch Clementine on Thursday even while she had a fever.  She is a die hard ballerina!  Before the performance we all got manicures and pedicures and I got her a really snuggly pink rug to sit on while she was waiting around to perform.  She is so in love with the rug that she sleeps with it on top of her pillows now. 

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters....

Bea had two parts in the show.  First she walked across the stage as Pinocchio was supposed to be going to school and then she came back out to perform in her part which was trying to convince Pinocchio to come back to school.  I have to admit that I didn't love the dance they choreographed, but Bea loved it because there was a lot of finger waving which is her most favorite move, although I'm not sure finger waving has anything to do with dance.  If it does, I'm a self proclaimed professional dancer. lol.  She had a darling white hat on with white gloves, but her hat was a stage hat and she wasn't allowed to keep it. Darn. One thing I really loved about this show is that much of the music was Italian so it was fun to sing along in my head to the few songs I knew.  People don't know this but Pinocchio means "pine eyes" and one of my favorite vegetables, fennel is called Finocchio in Italian which means "the end of the eye" and if you cut off the bottom of the bulb, it looks like an eye with the nerves going back.  I just love how everything has meaning in the Italian language.  Her part was just a few minutes long but she loved being up on stage with the real ballerinas and she remembered some of the moves, but just like Clementine, needed to be reminded by the other little girls.  We need to work on paying attention during practice:)

They are best friends...most of the time

Aunt Lucy, Tracie and Meg along with cousin Lincoln came to watch her perform and even though Justin was also late, Bea's part was later on in the performance so he didn't miss it.  Everyone left early so it was just me and her on the way home. I forgot to get her flowers so we stopped at the grocery store and got her a bouquet of flowers and a little cup of dip n dots to eat on the way home.  I've never seen a happier little girl.  I had so much alone girl time with Bea this week and it was so fun to just be with her.  She has such a sweet and funny personality that everyone loves.  She's just so wonderful(when she's not teasing Henry). 

Singing and twirling at the same time

 Bea is such a natural dancer.  I wish they would just let her do her own moves and dance what she feels because she comes up with some really nice and graceful moves.  She points her toes and extends her body out so well.  I don't know anything about dance, but she looks really beautiful to me. 

Another interesting spinning move

One thing I like about the dance place we go to is that their costumes and dance moves are all classic and appropriate.  I know so many women who have gone to other dance performances where young girls are doing suggestive moves and are wearing very skimpy outfits and I'm just so glad to see no offensive content in all the costuming and choreography. The girls who dance in our company are also all different sizes and I think it's nice to see that you don't have to be a toothpick to dance ballet and if someone isn't naturally a small size, they don't need to be discouraged, especially if they love it.   Plus, a lot of girls go on to dance in college, so it's a great program. 

The End

The production was really well done and I enjoyed it, even watching it a second time.  Bea, you are a wonderful little ballerina and I know you can be a real ballerina someday if you want to! 

Bea laying on her rug with a fever after Clementine's show.  Poor thing!