Dealing with a Dance Diva

I had to bring Nicole back home after she had been playing at her friend's house and tell her to get ready for dance.  Nicole screams and yells that it's just not fair, that she is busy playing with her friends.  She comes home mad at me, slamming doors and telling me how she hates dance, and she's not going, that she never wants to go to dance ever, ever again.  I yell at her to get in the shower.  I throw her a towel and tell her to get a different attitude.  She screams profanities at me, and says how I ruined her life.  I scream back that I'll show her ruined -- that she's grounded for the next couple of days, no friends... That's ruined.

Something magical happens that reverses everything.  Nicole showers and cools down.  We work together to get her dressed, pulling and tugging on outfits, tying shoes, brushing hair rapidly and tying and pinning her hair.  Then something happen.  She looks at herself in the mirror and starts humming a tune.  She is happy as could be, skipping around even.  As she checks her reflection in the mirror, she is quite happy with the results.  She has totally forgotten her big blow out about how she hated dance, how she hated me for forcing her to go.  It was as though I had a whole new child standing in front of me, telling me that she could not wait to dance.  Hurry up, let's go!

Nicole stretching before Hip Hop class.

We had many different fights.  One fight was about what kind of shoes she would wear for Hip Hop dance class.  I said that she needed to wear CONVERSE.  I did not care what color.  I wanted that name because the kids would know the shoes weren't from Payless or Target.  They were higher quality.  The other thing that I wanted for Nicole was to switch the laces.  We had regular black laces with her shoes, and so we switched them to hot pink.

Nicole stretches during her technique class.

Nicole is very close to doing the splits.

Nicole and Friends

Sometimes it works out even better when a dancer gets that moral support and boost from friends. Presley and Ivy went to watch Nicole go to work at her Hip Hop class.  It was loads of fun.  Nicole has her moves all worked out.  She knows how to shake it (not to brag, but she learned that from me). She can jump and slide. Nicole is very strong, and has a part where she has to lift another dancer. There is a lot of spinning and tricks involved in their routine.  I'm really proud of her.  She is doing great.  More news about her dance progress later on.

Love,
Lissa