Ms Meg

Ms Meg is my hero.

She has the patience of a saint when it comes to toddlers and very young children.

Her talents include gymnastics, ballet, choreography, wonderful stage make-up, props, and friendship.

Both my children started gymnastics as toddlers with Ms Meg and then took Creative Ballet (pre-pre ballet) with her for about three to four years each.

Ms Meg's daughter, her daughter's best friend, and my son were all the same age and took ballet class together with Ms Meg.

After class, the three of them and my daughter would color, play games, or figure out some way to stick around the ballet studio for an extra hour or so.

When my daughter tagged along to ballet class, Ms Meg would allow her to sit quietly in the studio and then participate for some of the exercises.

Due to the strict rule about being four years old to begin ballet, my daughter's January birthday prohibited her from beginning her own ballet class in the fall.

After many tears, I reluctantly agreed to let my daughter take dance at another dance studio where she took a combination class of ballet, tap, gymnastics, and singing.

Between the class being at my daughter's natural evening slow down time, my daughter only liking the ballet and gymnastics (which she was also taking somewhere else), and the studio wanting recital money in December for an "unknown" costume for May, I begged Ms Meg to please let my daughter take ballet classes with her the day after she turned four in January.
Ms Meg, thankfully, agreed!

When my son had his first Cavalier role during Nutcracker 2010, I cried on Ms Meg's shoulder and she recalled my son's attempt to quit rehearsing for his first ballet performance.

Apparently, he thought because he knew the dance, that practice was over; Ms Meg said that he could refuse to participate, but he would not be going on stage- my son promptly got up and joined the class.

While practicing on stage before their first performance, Ms Meg explained that they would not be able to see their parents during the performance due to the bright lights.

When asked after the performance if he could see the audience, my son's matter-of-fact reply, "Mom, you know Ms Meg said we wouldn't be able to see the audience because of the bright lights."

Ms Meg had also told the parents to get a base make-up that was a shade darker than their children's skin tone so that they would not be washed out by the stage lights.
And, yes, boys had to wear it too.

My son decided that he was not wearing make-up; Ms Meg suggested putting it on him at the last minute.

So, at the last minute before leaving the green room, my son allowed me to apply some base; and, as he was standing in line to go on stage, some blush was sneakily applied.

And, Ms Meg had a wipe to remove the make-up afterward.

Of course, the number of flower head pieces made for her budding ballerinas, extra details put on costumes and special costumes created for my son, and her handmade props- including a fire-breathing Chinese dragon that my son used for one of Ms Meg's beautiful choreographed "Chinese" pieces for Nutcracker- makes Ms Meg an artist extraordinaire.

First Class Pre-Excitement

When my son was around a year old and I was pregnant with my daughter, I began helping my friend's children with homework and carpooling from school and to their after-school activities- which, for the girls, included ballet and dance.

My son would sit and play with his toys in the waiting room of the dance studio and would occasionally watch the classes.

After awhile, however, he refused to watch any dance class that was not ballet.

When attending the dance recitals, unless a ballet piece was being performed, my son would take a small toy and play quietly in his seat.

Around the age of two, my son began asking about taking ballet. Whenever he was asked if he wanted to take any other dance classes, he politely said, "no, just ballet."

Upon researching ballet classes for boys, it was discovered that a few dance studios might take boys at two or three years, but there were no ballet classes.

At the gymnastics center my son attended, his coach said that she taught ballet at a ballet studio, but that they did not take anyone until age four.

Due to the fact that my son's birthday is in December, he was unable to start classes in the fall before he turned four.

In the spring, we signed him up for t-ball; and, a few weeks later, for summer ballet classes.

One of the happiest memories of that spring: my son hit the ball off the tee, made it to third base, and then proceeded to jump up and down on third base while excitedly telling his coach that he had gotten to sign up for ballet.

The coach got so tickled at my son that he almost forgot to send him to home plate.

Even years later, his coach liked to tell the story about him jumping up and down on third base because of his excitement for signing up for ballet.