Ballerina? Wait... that's not right...

I'm a ballet mom. But I'm not your typical ballet mom. Here's how I know. Every time I mention something to a stranger about my 4-year-old being in ballet, stranger begins asking questions about my daughter. To which I respond: What? My daughter? No, I don't have a daughter. I have a 4-year-old son. Sometimes people smile and tell me that's great, but there are also those who give me blank stares, or change the subject, like me having a young boy in ballet makes them uncomfortable.

Certain relatives of mine were among this group of people who don't think it's proper for a young boy to be in ballet. See here's the thing about my family. Nearly everyone on my dad's side of the family is dead, and nearly everyone on my mom's side of the family is extremely dysfunctional. (no wonder I am screwed up, I came from suicide on my dad's side, and mental illness on my mom's side.) These relatives are so dysfunctional that me putting my son in ballet has caused a massive rift in the family, and now no one speaks to each other. Seriously. My grandma and my aunt will no longer talk to my mom, because my mom thinks it's great for my son to be in ballet. And it is!

 Ballet is his first "sport" you see. What do they call boys who do ballet anyway? I'm quite sure a ballerina is referring to a girl. Oh well, it doesn't matter.

I put my boy in ballet back in February because, well, it gets boring staying home with mom all the time, he doesn't have siblings, I don't have friends with kids (or friends at all for that matter), and he needed some scheduled time to move around and interact with other kids his age. Ballet teaches him coordination, balance, stretching, following directions, and gives him confidence.

The confidence, you see, is important because he is a very shy boy. Very shy. (I can't blame him since my husband and I are rather antisocial ourselves). He is so shy that for the first few classes of ballet, he fought back tears, and I stayed next to his side throughout the classes to offer support. Once he got brave enough to participate in the class on his own, he was so pleased with himself. Now at ballet class his huge, adorable grin never leaves his face.

Of course all the other kids in his class are girls. I don't mind that, and I'm certain my son doesn't care either. I've actually found there are advantages to being the only boy in the class. For example, they are practicing a dance for their spring recital which will be a dance performance of "Annie." You know, the orphan? This event is coming up on June 4th. His ballet instructor (who is also the dance studio owner by the way), thinks my son is about the cutest thing ever. Actually the other ballet moms talk about how cute he is every week during their class. He's quite the little favorite. He is however, the worst dancer in the class. The girls have all been doing it longer and, well, my boy doesn't pay attention real well. And he can't figure out how to skip... Despite the fact that he's the worst dancer, he is front and center and leading the group through most of the dance. See, my son being a boy+being adorable means he is front and center so everyone can see him. This makes me happy :)

The best thing about ballet class is that my boy LOVES ballet. It's his favorite thing. He shows off his dance moves all the time! In fact, right now he is showing me first position, second position, third position, and some tondus and piques. He makes me practice his recital dance with him all the time. I cracked up laughing one day when I saw him doing dance stretches in the bathtub. I laughed super quietly to myself though, so as not to destroy his confidence.

The other fun thing about my son being in ballet is that the studio owner was looking for a photographer to do dance portraits and other random photography things, and I happen to be a photographer. I've shot pictures during some of their classes, and this Friday I will be doing dance portraits for the entire dance school! This will be my biggest photography job so far (I only started doing photography this last fall).

So ballet has been a great thing in my son's life, and my life as well. There will always be people who think ballet is only for girls, but I won't worry about them. It's not like I'm dressing him up in tights and tutus... Now that might be going a bit far ;)

And there's my happy little male ballet dancer with all the pretty young ballerinas :)


Thanks for reading! Keep coming back!