It can be tough being the little sister of a big brother with Autism. All the family activities are planned around whether or not we can attend as a family and with the needs/concerns of the Autistic child in mind. There are a lot of special events, especially around the holidays, that get skipped because they would be too difficult for her brother, Alex, to handle. At age 4, she doesn't always realize what she is missing out on - but I don't want her to feel like she missed out because of her brother and end up resenting him. Because of this, I try to plan special things that my daughter can do that are just for her.
As a child, I remember taking a trip every Christmas to go see The Nutcracker ballet. I usually went with
my father, who I especially miss this Christmas - it is our first without Grandpa and fond memories of him are so close to the surface for me. When I found out that The Nutcracker ballet was being performed nearby, I purchased tickets for us to attend. My daughter loves ballet and is in her 3rd year of classes already! I figured that at close to 5 years old she could sit through the performance and would enjoy it. One of her favorite DVDs of all times happens to be
Barbie in The Nutcracker
and more recently,
Prima Princessa Presents The Nutcracker
.
In preparation for attending The Nutcracker Ballet performed by the Company of Dance Arts, we watched
Prima Princessa Presents The Nutcracker many many times. Unlike the Barbie version which takes many liberties with the storyline, the
Prima Princessa version is the "real" Nutcracker. We first fell in love with
Prima Princessa last year when she received
Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake
DVD. What is so great about both is that they include real ballet performances of the actual ballet with child-appropriate narration explaining what is happening in that ballet Act. Unlike musicals or plays, there is no spoken word at The Ballet so kids may struggle with understanding the storyline as it is played out through dance. In between segments of dance,
Prima Princessa includes video clips of children dancing ballet and illustrates real dance moves with proper terminology. My daughter takes dance class and knows many moves but she didn't know the names of the moves she was learning until watching the
Prima Princessa DVDs. If you have a little girl who loves to dance, these DVDs are must haves for your collection and a nice diversion from the usual Barbie dreck.
Since she had watched her Nutcracker DVD, oh.... 10,987 times (or
thereabouts) over the past few months - I think my daughter knew the Nutcracker storyline better than I did. She was counting and waiting for the days to attend the live performance. We had a close call due to a
huge blizzard here in New Jersey and our Saturday afternoon performance ended up getting postponed until Sunday at 7pm. When the snow didn't stop, I feared that we wouldn't be able to attend the ballet at all. My daughter cried. I cried. I felt mad! But, we still had
Prima Princessa and if we had to dress up fancy and sit down and watch it together (kicking out the boys) I would have. The good news was - the snow stopped and the roads started getting plowed out. I decided we could get safely there and back to the rescheduled performance. My daughter was over the moon excited and couldn't get ready fast enough. I worried a bit that sitting through the 2 hour program would be difficult for her - even with the 10 minute break. When we got there it was magic. My daughter sat eyes wide open and loved every minute of it. She took in every saute,
glissade, and passe and couldn't take her eyes off of the dancers. Even cuter was when she was doing her own narration, ala the Prima Princessa fairy, and explaining to me what she saw on the stage. There was a little girl about 10 years old sitting near us and she commented to my daughter that she sure did know a lot about The Nutcracker! The credit goes only to the fact she has watched her beloved Prima Princessa DVD so many times.
The two of us had a magical time at the ballet together. I am glad to have taken the time and braved the snow to appreciate her for her without being in her brother's shadow.
Yes, watching The Nutcracker ballet with Belle, I fell in love with my daughter all over again. I am so proud of the beautiful and smart young girl she is shaping up to be.
Related Links:Prima Princessa Presents Swan LakeBuy Prima Princessa Presents The Nutcracker
Prima Princessa WebsiteDisclaimer: I did receive the Prima Princessa DVDs to try for review purposes.
for my two-year-old son.
DVD features actual performance segments by the San Francisco Ballet and the students at the School of American Ballet show kids a few dance steps. Best of all it provides a wonderful introduction to Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. An animated, sparkly fairy ballerina named Prima Princessa describes and provides a summary of the plot, the dances and the music in terms that young children can easily understand. She covers both Act I and Act II and children alternately watch segments of the actual ballet and instructional dance clips. Positions and steps covered include Passé, Glissade and Sauté (échappé sauté and sauté arabesque). The 40 minute movie also includes two bonus segments:
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