Billy Idiot

Again we are back from another summer in Quogue and back to school and I am back to my old shenanigans. Last year I found an all boys ballet class for S called Cobble Hill Ballet. I can say that S does not have the grace or natural talent of a ballet dancer, but he does have the energy, coordination and a mild interest in running around a room with a bunch of other boys. Ballet for five year olds, be they boys or girls, is really about pretending. The instructor is more likely to say "jump like a frog" than "Plié, Sauté". This works for S.

To further inspire S to greatness I decided that we should all watch Billy Elliot on family movie night. Both S and J were riveted by the movie and at the end of the night I was please when S told me he wanted to write about it in his summer writing journals. I should have seen it coming when he wrote "Tonight we watched Billy Idiot". Oh well.

Never one to take a hint and riding high from a year of ballet and thinking I would add tap to the mix this year, I signed S up for lessons at a different school where the dancing is taken a bit more seriously. Mark Morris is very popular in Brooklyn and the facilities are top notch. I figured that there would have to be other talented boys there. We showed up on the first day and S took a look at a room full of girls with tutus and positively refused to dance.

When I was young there was a boy in my class who had a part in the ABT production of The Nutcracker. He played a boy in the party scene. It was a huge deal even then and he invited the entire class to an open rehearsal. I always hoped that one of my boys would do the same. Alas those dreams died at the Mark Morris Dance School last week. C'est la vie!