My First Ballet: Coppélia

[Terpsichore]

On the first Christmas after the death of my late spouse, my former ward (the nearest I have to a daughter) went into hospital and gave birth to a beautiful little boy whom she called Vladimir. Despite his Slavonic name little Vladimir is entirely African, his mum being Sierra Leonean and his dad Ghanaian.

 

He has a beautifully expressive face and in his play I have seen him balance on one leg one arm outstretched before him the other to his side and his other leg off the ground almost in line with his body. Nobody told him how to do that trick. Now his mum says that all kids can do that. As she sees far more children of that age than I do I am sure she is right.

 

But it is also possible that the little lad has a taste and perhaps even a talent for ballet so I am taking him and his mum to see "My First Ballet: Coppélia"  at The Peacock on 13 April 2014 at 15:00. That ballet is aimed at children aged 3 and over so he is just old enough to see it.  English National Ballet's website has lots of resources.  Vlad's mum is already a balletomane (how could she not be with me as her guardian) but she is very level headed and unlikely to be a tiger mum even if her boy does have talent.

 

The ballet is to open in Shrewsbury on 5 April and then proceed to London, Manchester and various theatres in the home counties, I should be interested to hear from anybody who sees the show before I do.

 

It is of course possible that Vlad does not take to ballet. If that's the case, that's fine too.I have lots of other interests including sport - especially cricket which I love at least as much as ballet.

[Living the Dream]

What a lovely post terpsichore.  My DD and another balletco forum members' DD will be performing in these productions with ENB2.  I shall be at the Shrewsbury performance, so will let you have my review.  LTD 

[Terpsichore]

Many thanks for your interesting post, Living the Dream.  We three shall give your daughter and that of the other forum member a mighty cheer when the cast take their bow.

 

The little lad and his mother are looking forward to the show. The boy has already seen a bit of ballet on television at the New Year's  concert from Vienna and he certainly liked the music and I think also the dance.

 

More and more companies are staging shows for young children, Scottish Ballet offered Wee Hansel & Gretel recently and Northern Ballet will tour with Three Little Pigs from tomorrow.