First Ballet Exam for RaeAnne

Today is RaeAnne's first ballet exam. I only took a few hours off work so was really rushing to fetch her by bus from cc to school. I didn't learn ballet when I was young so I did not know that they were quite strict about attire during ballet exams.

No nail polish, earrings or panties are allowed during the exam. Yes, the gals only wear their leotards. I found the 3rd rule a bit weird frankly. But maybe it is unsightly if their panties peeked out of their leotards? Beats me.

Then,the hair must be neatly tied in a bun even for girls with short hair. RA has very short and layered hair so I really don't know how to bun up her hair. Luckily, the teacher said she will help to bun RA's hair and asked us to arrive early at 1230pm.

But when I reached the cc at 1210pm, she was still in the shower because the P forgot to inform RA's teacher that I am picking up early today. By the time, we reached her ballet school, it was already 1250pm. And all her classmates were ready and starting to practise. While RA had not eaten nor bunned her hair yet. Luckily Ms Joy offered her an OCK spring roll immediately so she could eat while Ms Joy bunned her hair.

Ms Joy bunned her hair beautifully, I don't think I would have been able to do it so nicely. Suddenly, RA looked so grown up and graceful. Haha. Then she managed to have 1 last round of practice with her classmates and waited for their turns to go into the exam dance hall.

There were 5 gals going for pre primary exam and it was only group dancing at this level, no individual performances yet. There were only two grades, Good or Excellent for Pre primary. A lot of ballet gals skipped this stage and start straight from Primary level exam. But since RA is still in K2, without the stresses of P1, I wanted to expose her to the ballet exam system and see whether she is really committed to learning ballet.

She did whined about having to practise her dance moves a few months ago during her additional weekly coaching class so I told her I will stop her ballet lessons after this exam if she does not want to continue. After all, she can always learn Chinese dance or other forms of dance in primary school without the need for exams.

But today after her exams, I asked her if she still wants to learn ballet and take ballet exams. She said yes. RA is very shy so I hope performing arts will help to boost her confidence and perform on stage. We will support her as long as she is really interested. So, looks like this won't be her first and last ballet exam yet. Lol.