Evening at the Ballet

Friday night, Annie and I had the privilege of taking our nieces to "Swan Princess" at Kingsbury Hall performed by Children's Ballet Theatre (I danced with them when I was younger -- so did Annie. In fact, last year we discovered we were in the same production of Cinderella. I was a mouse).

Piper (almost 4) loves ballet and even knows how to do an arabesque and Chloe (6) just likes activities so I knew they'd have fun.

They were so good and sat (relatively) still throughout the 2 hr 15 min performance. We had great seats on the front row of the balcony. The Swan Princess was an adaptation of Swan Lake. The music initially scared Piper who plugged her ears throughout the entire overture. But once the dancers came out, she was able to adjust and enjoy it.

In the future, I'm going to be sure to read the program beforehand so I'm prepared to answer the constant questions that will inevitably be asked of me. I'm not a parent, but I assume you get to a point where you just start making stuff up. I reached that point after 5 minutes. Here are some of the questions and comments throughout the production:

"Where are the ballerinas?"

"This is scary."

"What are they doing?"

"Is she a swan too?"

"Is it over?" (Chloe asked this every time the audience clapped during the first half)

"Where are they now?"
Answer: They're having a birthday party.
Follow up question: "Are they going to eat birthday cake?"

"I don't like that dancing."

"I like that dancing."

"Is she older now?"
Answer: "Yes."
Follow up: "How old is she now?"
Answer: "A few years older."
Follow up: "How old?"

"What's the black girl doing in the back?" (she meant the black swan)

"Is she jealous of the white swan?"

"Where's the prince?"

"Is he a bad guy?"

"How many more swans are there?"

"Is it mission yet?" (intermission)

This is a picture of all three adorable little girls. As soon as Chloe found out Annie's niece was also six years old, she wanted to be her best friend for the evening.

At intermission we ate the chocolates Chloe and Piper kindly brought for me and then we walked up and down the stairs inside Kingsbury a couple times, got some water, did a couple twirls (Annie's idea) and then went back to our seats.

Annie, being the genius she is, looked through her program, explained the entire second half before it began and the girls sat quietly enthralled for the rest of the performance.