Tiny Dancer

When a teacher starts any sentence "In 6 years of teaching this class, I've never seen...", you know your kid is either really great, really bad, or, in Ivy's case, really, um, unique. 

What the teacher in her music class actually said was "In 6 years of teaching this class, I've never seen such an interesting combination of dance moves." 

"Yeah," I said.  "She gets that from her dad."

We started taking a great music class 3 weeks ago and Ivy LOVES it.  She doesn't really participate in the songs, she doesn't clap or listen to the words.  She doesn't sit on my lap and rhythmically tap her hands on my knees, or shake the eggs, or drum with the sticks.

What she does is dance.  Even to, as the teacher put it, the "non-dancing songs".  She is on her feet for the entire 45 minute class, dancing, swaying, stomping, moving, just generally getting down.  And this girl can shake it, though her moves have been described as "psychedelic" and "Grateful Dead-esque", I like to think that all that Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Prince will one day sink in, and those hippie moves will transform into something more we-live-in-the-city and less she-was-raised-on-a-commune.

A girl can dream.

So anyway, after this last class, I went to talk to Teacher Sean (who "looks like a daddy"), to ask if she was being disruptive with all the shaking it and falling on the other moms and kids, and the ignoring of the rhythm entirely, and he assured me that she was fine, and that while her moves are unusual, he would never discourage anybody from dancing and enjoying the music.

Guess she's just going to be THAT kid.  I hope she doesn't teach those moves to Scarlett...

 

Comments

[Fatemeh]

Video, please???

[jen maiser]

lol - I just clicked through from RSS to say the *exact* thing that fatemeh did .... your readers demand video!

[Katie]

I love this posting! I have a lovely visual of Ivy getting funky to the tunes. But really, it seems to me that she's just participating as the class website describes:

Join us in discovering an informal and non-judgmental setting in which children and adults sing, dance and improvise together. We will joyfully fly with rainbow wings, stomp like elephants, make a rainstorm with our drums, chug
as a train, and curl up for a lullaby.

Except for maybe the curl up for a lullaby part. Oh, well. At least she's participating! Quincy loves his music class too, and I'm happy he enjoys it, it's just that he runs in circles around the parachute most of the time.

[Chris]

Ain't nothing wrong with the way I dance.. I may be no Justin, but I'm out there, being me. Ivy is doing the same, and I love her for it. Just thinking about it makes me smile on a day where I'm not doing much smiling.

[sam]

I am not sure we need the video. I am enjoying the picture you've painted in my mind with your words.

[Molly]

I MIGHT be able to scrounge up some video, but it'll have to be good.

Thanks for all the comments, gang!