I sent her to a ballet class to fulfil my own mommy dream of having a cute and pretty little ballerina. I simply love little ballerinas in their cute tutu and tiny hair bun.
She took ballet lessons till she was 8. In the process, I changed her to different ballet schools for different reasons, mostly for more competent teachers or schools that were more serious about ballet. She wanted to stay with a ballet school that played more than trained, but I saw little purpose in that. Above all, after more than a year in the same grade, the new teacher sent only a few girls for their graded exam, and she didn't seem to be sure when the girls would be ready for their exams. She told the rest of the girls that they would go for the next exam in a few months' time, but when the 'few months' came and passed, she said they would go for the next exam! I didn't want to be subjected to a guessing game, so I switched Coco to a Community Club with a small ballet class.
I liked the last ballet teacher actually. She was older and more experienced than most of the ballet teachers I had met. Parents were and still are welcomed to sit in the class, unlike other ballet classes Coco had been to.
However, she was too strict for Coco's taste. Coco's lack of practice at home was apparent to the teacher's trained eye and she was often singled out to repeat the dance steps the girls were instructed to do.
So after a while, Coco asked me to withdraw her from the class.
I accepted that my dream of having a daughter competent at ballet was not to be, and Coco stopped her ballet lessons at that. All of 8 years old and Grade Two.
Then some time this year, she suddenly told me she would like to learn ballet again.
When quizzed further, she replied that all her classmates were learning ballet and they had a certain graceful pose unique to dancers.
I was not so sure this time though.
It was her 'streaming year'. Although Coco is in an IP school where most students go through the through-train programme and continue their pre-university education at an integrated junior college, Sec 2 students who don't meet the promotion criteria are 'streamed' to an O level track class.
Coco was not exactly tip-toe in her performance in Sec 1, so we preferred her to focus on her academics this year to see if she was merely distracted by demanding CCA last year or she was indeed a bad fit for the Integrated Programme.
I told her,"Meet the promotion criteria and you can learn ballet again after exams."
As it is, she cleared her promotion criteria with grades better than what we had expected. So she got to learn ballet again.
Then came the herculean task of finding a ballet school for her.
As Coco is all of 14 years old now, the ballet schools I called up sounded reluctant or elusive when I asked for a graded ballet class. Most of them replied that they did not have such a class ie. 'old' kids as beginners and they were not willing to allow such a big kid to join the much younger ones at Grade Two. In fact, all of them were doubtful that Coco could join at Grade Two. One proposed that Coco should join the adult class that did not have graded exams, which was not what I wanted. And there were still one or two who didn't bother to get back to me after promising to check with the teacher which class Coco could go!
I announced to Coco that she was discriminated because of her 'old age' and conveniently reminded her that I had warned her that learning ballet and piano has window periods.
Then it occurred to me that I could call the last ballet teacher that Coco was training under.
After giving her the information required, she asked to see Coco at a Grade Four class.
And Coco is now learning ballet under the same teacher.
Among smaller kids no doubt, but she is undaunted by the apparent difference.
When asked how she felt about the first lesson, she replied that it was 'confusing' since there were many steps involved. On the other hand, her gymnastics CCA finally redeemed itself with some merits - Coco maintains a certain level of flexibility that the ballet teacher thought she would not have since she had stopped learning ballet for 6 years. The punishing rituals of bending and stretching beyond the girls' limits actually interests Coco to try out challenging bending poses from time to time so her body is still flexible enough to learn ballet.
Incidentally, the day we first met up with the ballet teacher, I saw a girl doing character dance through the peeping window.
While Coco was busy getting ready for her lesson, I told Coco that the girl in the class looked very graceful doing the character dance, and her outfit was beautiful.
When it was Coco's turn to peep through the window, she remarked,"She reminds me of Z. (one of her P1 and P2 best friends)"
When she opened the door, the two girls squealed in delight. She was indeed Z. Both of them were glad to meet each other again after all these years.
The demure and soft-spoken girl mentioned that as the years passed, her ballet classmates dropped the lessons one by one to cope with the academics or they had simply lost interest in ballet, but her love for ballet continued to burn throughout the years. She didn't stop her ballet lessons even when she was preparing for PSLE! It is heartwarming and refreshing to know that there is a teenager who is passionate about ballet.
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