How young is too young?

There have been some threads recently on bhuz.com talking about children bellydancing. It has gotten me thinking about the subject - how young is too young to start dancing?

I've always thought that - when I have children - if I have a girl, she will be dancing as soon as she can walk. Not just bellydance, all forms of dance. I started "ballet" and "tap" (if you can call it that!) when I was two, and never looked back. I envision signing my toddler up for dance classes, and dressing her up in sparkly costumes. I want us to dance together, and to perform together. Dance is such a huge part of my life, I can't imagine not sharing it as much as I can with my children.

Suhaila Salimpour and Isabella Khoury are a great example of a mother/daughter dance duo, where the daughter is a bit on the young side. Isabella is around 9 years old. Some people think that's too young. I say it depends - what kind of 'moves' is she doing? What is her costume? Is she trying to emulate and adult, or is she doing the dance in 'child-appropriate' manner? I think it is great to start a child young - especially in bellydance, where so many of us don't get our start until we are much, much older.

What do you think?

It's showtime!!

Well, almost....

My yearly student showcase is a little more than one month away. Practices are starting to get longer, and more frequent, and the stress levels are visibly up in class. Everyone is thinking show, show, show.

We have a lot to do and not much time to do it all! All of the students have learned their dances, now it is time to perfect them. Anyone thinking of doing a solo needs to be working on that now as well. Costumes are being bought and made, and tickets will start selling next week.

It's a crazy time of year, but we love it! If we didn't love it, we'd be crazy for doing it again and again!