Dance Classes and Modesty/Purity

Today is my daughter's dance recital.  She will be receiving her 6 year award.  I am so excited for her!  Yesterday was the dress rehearsal.  The girls have all worked so hard!  Four of us mothers who have had our girls in the same classes for four years, some more, were all sitting together while we watched the girls all practice.  We were discussing the class selection for next year.  Each year the girls dance the classes become more and more specialize.  I would love to allow my daughter to take several classes to do all the disciplines but as my mother told me growing up, "Money does not grow on trees" so we have to narrow the options down to two classes at most.  My daughter expressed an interest in hip hop for next year.  I think I had a heart attack.  Hip hop?  Really?  One of the teachers told me a couple routines to watch for beginners and they were fine but the problem lies in the first routine I watched which was high school age girls doing hip hop.  They are great dancers but some of those moves... I am sorry but my 8 almost 9 year old will not be doing those.  One of the other mom's leaned over during the routine and said to the rest of us "And THAT is why my daughter will NOT be taking hip hop!".  I had to agree.   The girls were actually dressed modestly, however, they really needed poles!  It was appalling!  When I talked to my daughter about it later she said that she told the girl sitting next to her (it was this girl's mother that made the above comment...) that I would not allow her to take hip hop as I had stated some of the moves were inappropriate.  The other girl said "What was wrong with that?  I did not see anything inappropriate."  My daughter did not know what the problem was but that mommy said there was something.  I will have to explain it to my child at some point but it is sad that the kids do not see that moving their bodies in this way publicly is not a good idea.

I started to write this entry BEFORE the recital and then had a busy weekend.  The recital is now past.  I had warned my husband of this first routine and asked him to play the ipod with my 6 year old during the routine to keep him from seeing it.  My son sat there and watched.  I leaned over and said "Aren't you helping Daddy with the game?" After all my son is a video game addict in training if it weren't for us limiting him.  He looks at me and says "I know you only want me to play because you don't want me to see this."  And he turned and stared at the stage more.  So frustrated.... His little eyes and mind do not need encouragement to watch these things.

It may seem harmless to some but we really do need to protect our children's innocence as long as we can.  That being said, I finished a book yesterday called "Six ways to keep the 'little' in your girl" by Dannah Gresh. This was a great read.  And while I do not agree with everything her family did, I am really having to pray and think in depth about some things.  She explains that part of keeping them innocent means we may have to have "the talk" with them sooner than I imagined.  I see her points... it is all just so scary.  I do feel confirmed in my thinking about this whole hip hop class though.  Some of those moves are just too much for my LITTLE girl!

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