Ok, hi sheplaysinthechalk
I'm not on the run today and I'm sorry if I was a little short yesterday...but I've got tons of time today and can blather along aimlessly on this topic that I don't know much about
The thing is that there is no official handbook that says gymnastics is bad if want to take my dance class. Stern looking dance teaches don't excuse themselves to a back room where they sip diet coke and flip through the pages of Vanity Fair while you wait with patient anticipation thinking they are somewhere seriously considering the merits of your application and potential as a prima ballerina.
There do however seem to be some prejudices in regards to formally trained dance teachers when it comes to gymnastics. Not sure where it comes from, but it can be there. Maybe it has do do with body type, muscular development and flexibility differences between the two disciplines. Maybe it's scheduling conflicts or they just want to know that your daughter will focus solely on dance. Anyway, since I'm feeling a little silly today, here's a story I found on the web entitled:
Balancing Act #7: Gymnastics vs Ballet
Becca wants to take ballet lessons. If I'd known this was coming, I'd never have taught her to walk. Better crawling than doing ballet, that's my motto.
No man really, truly, deep down likes ballet. Even Barishnakow, as he flits around the stage like an overinflated blow up doll that's suddenly sprung a bunch of leaks, thinks to himself, "Man, I sure wish my mom had let me play football as a kid". Seriously, any guy who tells you he really likes ballet is trying to score brownie points with his date. That's right, his date. Ever see a guy go to the ballet alone? Of course not. Men by themselves tend to wander into Bruce Willis movies or go to bars and watch sports. Ballet simply isn't a possibility for an empty Saturday night.
It doesn't help that Becca is￠ not terribly graceful. That's really understating it. When Becca runs across the room, pictures fall off of walls. Plates rattle in the cupboards. The dog whimpers and hides under the coffee table. She's not an overly large child, but she moves like a 300 pound truckdriver.
My wife took ballet lessons as a child, and has been trying to show her some of the moves and positions. She's sadistic that way. Becca thinks she's really good at it. She'll say, "Daddy, would you like to see my ballet?" With a nasty look at my wife, I say "Sure." Notice- it's "Sure.", not "Sure!!!". I can fake it, but not well. Becca, usually dressed up in the leotards and tights she plays in, immediately runs to the center of the room. She does the first position, which apparently involves touching both big toes, both little toes, and both knees together at the same time. Then she falls over. Then she does the second position, which involves lifting your leg. Then she falls down. There are more positions, but she's usually gotten tired of them by this point and begins to "dance". This involves jumping up and down, waving her arms, and an occasional kick. Then, after her masterful 15 second performance, she bows, and it's over. We call it "The Dance of the Epileptic Weasel". I believe it's from the nutcracker.
Sometimes she decides to put on a "dance show". She'll dress up in her leotard, feather boa, and princess crown. She arranges all of her baby dolls in chairs. Sometimes she comes up with an elaborate backstory about how she's going to dancing school, and these are her kids, and I'm the grandpa and I've brought them here for her recital. She turns out most of the lights, turns on the music (Kid's Favorite Family Sing Alongs, by Tchaikovsky), then it's position 1, position 2, 15 seconds of waving, kicking dancing, and it's all over. She never mentions what happens afterwards in her story. She graduates from dance school and goes on to work in an office, I guess. Could be worse, at least she's not recreating Flashdance, right?
She wants lessons to improve this. I'm not sure ANYTHING can improve this.
I want her to take gymnastics. Gymnastics is far less boring than Ballet. You're probably thinking "Gymnastics? How is that better? Gymnastics still involves people in tights flitting around". There is a simple answer to that. Ninjas.
Ballet involves flitting around in tights. Gymnastics involves doing FLIPS and SOMMERSAULTS in tights. Ninjas do flips and sommersaults. Taking gymnastics brings my sweet little girl one step closer to being a lethal shadow assassin, and that's just plain cool. Doing a backflip is only a few small steps away from doing a backflip, flinging out a chinese throwing star in midair, and landing with swirling, deadly nunchuks. For this reason, gymnastics is far cooler than ballet. I wholeheartedly support gymnastics lessons.
But it's not really for me, is it? It's for her. So try as I might to resist the storm, it's probably going to be ballet. And no matter how much it hurts, I'll attend her recitals. I'll smile, and I'll clap, and when it's over, I'll carry her out on my shoulders and try to ignore the people who took cover under their chairs to avoid the walls that collapsed and windows that shattered during her performance.
Link Removed
Also, here is a nice montage called: Ballet vs Gymnastics
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