Choking on disappointment

Tonight was Mallory's first dance lesson, and to say that we have been looking forward to today is a MAJOR understatement. Mallory has been practising her dance moves all summer long (as evidenced in our vacation video) and I have really been enjoying assembling her leotard, tap shoes, ballet slippers etc. and daydreaming about how cute she is going to be as a little dancer.

I was so excited tonight to take her to her dance class and see how she would do. There were several girls in the class, maybe a dozen? All dressed in pink, with tutus and tights and slippers. They were adorable. They filed into the dance studio and sat in a circle on the floor. I took a picture.

And then I was accosted by a staff member who told me that there is a 'family situation' with one of the girls in the class and that as a result, none of the parents were allowed to take pictures of any of the class. End of story.

Would it be completely unreasonable of me to yank Mallory from this class and enroll her elsewhere? OK, so I am kidding... but to say that I am disappointed does not even begin to cover it. I know the most important thing is that she go to class, participate and have fun... but I sure would love to have a few snaps of the cuteness of it all. And while I can take a picture of her in her dress code at home, that doesn't come close to the cuteness of a dozen little girls all dressed the same, plie-ing away in the studio with the wood floor, the barre, etc.

I'd already heard that this particular dance studio does not allow parents to photograph the year-end recital... the pro they hire is the only one shooting... and while I'm sure her shots are great and I understand that they don't want a hundred flashes going off... that bothers me. I at least thought I would get to shoot the weekly lessons.

Wah!

Sigh.

So here you have it... heavily cropped... I think this will be the extent of the 2010-2011 dance year.