Ballet has actually been a part of Brooke's everyday life ever since she was three years old. Every day with out fail, Brooke will disappear to her room, and come out with some sort of frilly costume on. She then turns on classical music and dances on her tip toes like a ballerina. She does turns, leaps and every movement with grace.
When I found out that Brooke's particular dance school puts on the Dallas Repertoire Ballet Nutcracker every year, I was thrilled that she would have the opportunity to try out and if she made it, she would be performing with professional dancers that her school hires to be the main characters...
Brooke was so happy when she found out that she was chosen to be a candy cane. She was upset that she was not able to do as well at the tryout dance as she would have liked too however. We got that worked out by working on this particular move Brooke couldn't do, every single day...She got it after about a week.
I learned a few things about Brooke that I already knew and did not know about Brooke during our first Nutcracker experience...
First, I saw what I already knew, that Brooke was born a performer. On the night of the first show at the Eisman Center, all the other girls in her scene were really about to throw up because they were nervous to get onto such a big stage and see darkness and people in an audience. You would have thought Brooke was in her own home.... she was comfortable and excitedly smiling. Brooke never looked at another student...she only looked to the audience and performed her dance with confidence, and perfection.... every single time.
Second, I found out that Brooke has an amazing sense of direction. Elizabeth, Brooke Maddison's Mom took them to practice one night when I was working, the next day when I was asking her how to get to the Eisman Center, where to park and how to get to the stage, she said to me, " Did you know that your daughter helps me figure out how to get to the elementary school every time we take a different route threw the neighborhood?" I said, " No, I didn't." She said, " Your daughter is amazing with directions and has a good memory. All you have to do is ask her once you see the building and she can tell you where to park and how to go in." I said, " Okay and didn't ask anymore because she seemed in a hurry. So that night when we saw the building I said, " Brooke, Elizabeth said that you would know where to park and get in?" Brooke quickly told me which road to turn down, gave me specific directions about what floor to park on and then when we got out of the car she lead me to the opposite end of the parking garage, took me down three flights of stairs, around a corner to this empty hallway where we exited out the parking garage and then lead me to one door out of four that took us into the basement of the performance hall. I was shocked she could remember how to do this! I felt like I was with my genius little sister Amy, only this was my Six-year old leading me!
Third, I learned about Brooke's self-control. When all the other little girls were playing around because they didn't go on stage until act two, I told Brooke, " We need to do your homework Brooke." She said, " Why?" I said, " You tell me. Lets talk about priorities. Tell me what priority dance comes after? " She said, " School ." I said, " That's right, you will have time to goof off later." She did not hesitate, but instead she offered her friends the bag she had packed with all kinds of games and coloring books in it, and said, " You guys can play with this until I am done."
Fourth, I saw how wise Brooke is even as a little six-year old, she knows she needs to have a balance. Even though Brooke says almost every day that she is going to be a Prima Ballerina someday and that she can't wait to be good enough at ballet to wear the " Big girl Point shoes" She wants to do what is right. I told Brooke earlier in the month that after the Nutcracker we were going to talk about taking her our of her Ballet One class , so that she would have more time at home and not have dance twice a week. She was very okay with it because she doesn't like ballet one as much as ballet two, because she is with bigger girls in ballet two. She asked me while we were waiting for her to go on stage at one of the shows if we were still going to do that? I said, I talked to the owner of the school and she told me that she didn't want Brooke to leave ballet one yet because she is the teacher and she liked to teach every single student at the school for a whole year, their first year. Brooke said, " Well I really don't want to leave the older girls class that I am in." I said, " Sorry we have no choice, she is the one that casts the Nutcracker so you need to stay with her and that's what she said. Brooke looked at me sad and said, " Mom, it's okay if I have to get out of ballet two that I like, I will be able to be with the older girls later, and I like Mrs.Kathy ( the owner ) even though she is mean and yells at us, she is a good teacher."
I was so impressed that Brooke was able to let go of her pride about wanting to be in the older girl class and make a good choice on her own to quit one day a week of dance. I actually hadn't made up my mind about what I was going to do because I was so worried about how sad she was going to be to leave that older girl class that she loves....
Brooke really is a special girl. I know that God smiles down upon her :)
Dec. 7, 8, & 9th Dallas Repritore Ballet presents "The Nutcracker"
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