Hayley the Baby Mouse

A bunch of the girls in my class last year were in Mountain West Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.  Hayley and I and some of my friends from school were able to go and watch them perform.  I loved it, and after talking to some of the moms loved how it was organized.  It's a community ballet theater run mostly on volunteer work from the families of the dancers.  Dancers try out, but everyone gets a part.  Then they continue taking a ballet class at their home studio, and then have rehearsal once a week for their part in the production.  I was really excited when Hayley decided to try out this year.

She really wanted to be cast as a Bon Bon (the little girls that pop out of the lady's big skirt) but instead got Baby Mouse.

She was a little disappointed, and it took a little convincing, but she decided to accept the part.

 It's a good thing, since she was the cutest little baby mouse there was!

It was great for her to make some new friends with the other mice, and also with some other girls from our school.  These are all of the girls from Jordan Hills that participated in The Nutcracker production.  Two of them are former students of mine, but it was so fun to get to know the others (and their moms) a little better.

She was also very excited to invite pretty much everyone she knew to come and watch her.  I only got a few pictures, but thank you so much to all of you who supported Hayley by buying candy and popcorn from her fundraisers, and/or coming to watch her perform.  She loved seeing you all.

I'll tell you what, this is one loved little girl!

Mountain West Ballet is performing Cinderella in the Spring.  I really am hoping that she decides she wants to do it, especially since you have to be eight years old for that one (you only have to be six for Nutcracker) and the auditions are on her birthday, so she would barely make the cut off.  It's like it was meant to be!  Either way, just doing something kind of new has been a great experience for her.