Living Room Ballet

Despite being initially sceptical about ballet, or at least the bit that involves putting on a pink dress, G seems to be getting into it. The other day, she gave me a demonstration of some of her moves in the living room. Not quite sure the big finish went exactly as planned, though.

The music is Down By The Water by The Decemberists, which remains her favourite song almost a year after she began to insist on hearing it during every car journey. I don't think that's the kind of thing they dance to during the actual ballet classes, however.

For this week, the girls were asked to tell the teacher the name of their favourite Disney princess. Given that Disney princesses and all things pink are not exactly high on our home entertainment agenda, this meant we had to train G to say the name of the least lame female Disney princess we could think of. So if anyone asks, G likes Rapunzel, from the movie Tangled.

Obviously the character was originally created by the Brothers Grimm, but I imagine this kind of literary pedantry is generally frowned upon in children's dance lessons.

Down By The Water

I've got a mix CD in the car which has Down By The Water by The Decemberists as the first track. Over the last couple of weeks, every time we've got in the car, G has insisted I play it over and over again while she sings along. Whenever it finishes, she gives herself a cheer then says "Down by water song! Down by water song!" until I put it on again. At least it's a suitably good and trendy record for her to like. Thankfully, we've mostly been doing short journeys, otherwise I'd probably have got thoroughly fed up of it by now.

Obviously, G usually does the Gillian Welch part while I do my best Colin Meloy impression. I've spared you my singing on this video though. It was taken by Mrs J on our way back from the shops earlier, in case you were wondering how I was able to drive and film at the same time.