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As I was growing up, I always envied the girls who were able to take dance lessons or gymnastics.  Unfortunately, my family couldn’t afford to put me into a class, let alone buy the clothing or dance shoes that were required, so that dream, along with so many others passed me by.  When my daughter was little, I wanted to get her into one of those activities, but the ballet lessons were just too expensive so I put her into a tumbling class when she was five years old.  She didn’t really enjoy it as much as I had hoped she would, and I guess I was trying to fulfill my own dream through her.

Now, my four year old granddaughter comes along, and she simply loves dancing .  Case in point; we were in a restaurant the other day and the Michael Jackson song “Thriller” came on, well… You should have seen

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her! She was so darn cute, she got up and stood in the middle of the floor, surrounded by at least a half dozen other families, and she proceeded to start dancing many of the moves from the video “Thriller”!  I was amazed. She had the moves down, from snaking her body, to tossing her head, to putting her arms forward with her wrists hanging limply down like a zombie, just like the video!  Now, I’m not saying that she looked exactly like the video, or that she is a natural and looked perfect, but as for being a four year old, she really busted a move!  At first, I was worried that she was going to be annoying to the other diners (we were at Mel’s, a very casual 60’s style diner), but to my surprise, when I looked up, all eyes were on her and many were in a sort of awe while watching her, all were smiling of lauging, even the servers and the manager had stopped to watch.  When the song was over, everyone applauded quietly, she sheepishly, turned around and took a bow!  I think we have a little extrovert on our hands, and possibly a performer.

I would love to get her into dance lessons, whether it’s ballet, contemporary or modern dance doesn’t matter, but if we can keep her self esteem going, and give her the tools to help her on her way, I’ll do it!  I was surfing the web trying to find lessons and clothing when I ran across zappos.com, they have some pretty nice dance shoes there and they are not as pricey as I thought they would be.  I think this would be a good option.

So what is your experience with little girls and dance lessons, do you think it’s a good idea?  She also shows some interest in learning karate or some sort of martial art, maybe that would be a better option.