Shall We Dance?

Anna and her best friend, Chloe, are holding dance classes and a recital for all the girls Abby's age in our neighborhood. They did this last year and had about 4 girls sign up for a low cost of $2. This year, they have 10 girls signed up and are charging $5 per girl because this year they will each be getting a tutu. (Guess who gets to make 10 tutus?). It sounds like they're going to make a lot of money, right? I'm not so sure they'll come out ahead. For the past few weeks they've been buying things to get ready. They each bought a disposable camera so they can take pictures of their pupils, and a scrapbook to put them in. They've also bought countless supplies and teaching aids. Most of this is driven by Chloe who happens to remind me a lot of Braden; however she has no need for the Sommerset moms :) Chloe is sort of the producer and Anna the director. Anna has made up most of the dances.

They think big, and Chloe's mom and I have had to talk them down from much grander plans. They originally had an outfit all picked out at Target that they were going to ask the Mom's to buy for each of the girls. That's why I volunteered to make tutus. They're practicing twice plus a dress rehearsal and then the grand performance. They planned on teaching their students 7 dances. I talked them down to 3 or 4, plus in the middle Anna and Chloe will be singing "Popular" from Wicked for the audiences pleasure. I love it. Also, they've been redecorating my living room for a month now in preparation for this big recital.

It does give me a little bit of a heart attack that they're asking for money for something they're not totally qualified to teach, but the parents all seem to get a kick out of it and the little girls LOVE it. I'm so happy that they're both so creative and assertive. When they delivered the flyers to prospective dancers they didn't just drop them off, they stood there and asked for a commitment right then and there on the doorstep. Some of these parents were kind of unsure what to do with these two girls. Oh dear. We love Anna and Chloe!

Here's a sample of some of their preparations:

This is the flyer they took door to door

This will be sent home with each girl before the dress rehearsal.

This is just a list of snacks that Chloe made.

A box for the take-home notes.

A little good behavior incentive sticker chart (can you tell Chloe's Mom is a teacher?)

Candy jar, more incentives.