I do not often write about my son. We, I and his father, have decided we do not want pictures of him out in the public domain. I find this hard as I think he is amazing, and want to show him off. But I will sometimes write about my journey as a dancer with a child, on the impact of pregnancy and motherhood on my dance life, but also on children and dance. So here is the first post on that topic!
(and here he is dancing with me from a verrry early age ;-))
My son is 2,5 years old and he loves music. How can he not with a musician for a father and a dancer for a mother. He is always surrounded by music. He is very specific in his likes. He likes baladi accordeon number two from Yasmina’s baladi cd. My troupe, Raks Pro performs to it, and I had no day care when I made that choreography about a year ago, so he was always there and must have heard it a million times. He likes the Beatles and the Monkeys. He loves all classical music. He jumps around to “So Move”, a drum solo dance by my other troupe, A-Team. He also recognizes music that my parents or his father play to him, and seems to connect certain songs with certain people. Granddad is Italian music, Daddy is The Beatles.
I have a room in my house that we converted into a small dance studio for me. It is about 20 square metres, not bad size wise. It has a sprung floor, a mirror wall, and a wall of dvds, cds and dance clothes. It is bliss. I can practice here without needing to leave the house whenever I want (well, or better whenever I can as with a toddler around that’s not as often as one would like). As a busy, working mom, it does mean I can use “stolen time”, too short to make it out to a studio, but long enough to rehearse a routine. I teach private classes here too. Fantastic to be able to do that in my own space. I can throw all my dance gear in here when I get home and I do not have it cluttering up the living room and bedroom. I will write about crafting out a practice space for yourself some other time, as I realise a ‘Room of one’s Own’ is not what everyone has or can have, and I have spent almost two decades of dancing without it myself, so I do have a list of tips!
My son associates the room more with “music” than with “dance”. Though he knows it’s for dancing, whenever we go in there he peeps “music?” in that high pitched boy voice mommies love. He knows how to turn the stereo on. And off, as in preferably when I’m in the middle of practicing a new combination or in a hurry to get a class prepared. Sometimes he sits and watches, sometimes he dances around, sometimes he just plays and does his own thing, and ignores me while I practice. In the dance room he has his own cane and his own veil, infant size. But he isn’t too interested in those (yet?). He prefers my stuff, big veils and zills especially. He throws them around or bashes them together. Fun! I hope he gets better at them than I am.
He dances too, he sometimes copies what I do with his arms, sort of, throws his legs about in all directions, and runs around in circles. As soon as he could stand and walk, any music made him turn and turn till he falls over laughing. He still does that sometimes, but seems to have more control and is a little more deliberate already. He clapped to the music from very early age, as well as bopped his head. He loved me dancing with him in my arms, or in a carry pack. So, yes, imagine me with a couple of kilos of baby boy in a hippie-dippie ergonomically correct baby carrier, belly dancing along to a jillina dvd amidst the baby clutter. (But how I started getting back into dance after pregnancy is a story for another day as well).
At the moment he is discovering everything that has to do with running, jumping and squatting down, so does that to music too. He seems to always do to music some exaggerated version of whatever physical ability he is generally discovering and exploring at any given moment. Whether it’s wiggling his fingers, or falling over, or letting his head fall forward or backward. It’s always evolving. It’s so much more than copying me, it really seems to come from within. It’s fascinating.
So, what made me start writing about this today. A few days ago, he picked up the bra of one of my costumes. Took it out of the bag actually. “What have you got there?”. “It’s mommies”, he says. “So what’s it for?” I ask. And he holds it in front of his little chest, and proceeds to wiggle just about every body part he has, and says, “dancing!”.
That’s my boy!
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