***The Winner is Steph from Diapers and Divinity. Yay. I like her and Random.org likes her too apparently.***
Laylee is loving everything ballet. She loves the shoes, the tutus, the music, the finger positions and even the little fakey twittering giggle that apparently ballerinas must make as they flit about.
We had tried putting her in a class when she was 3ish and it was fun but not in the same way as it’s fun right now. Now ballet is life and she wants nothing more than to dance like the big ballerinas when she grows up, preferably next week.
So I was excited when I heard from Stephanie Troeller, one of the mom masterminds behind Prima Princessa, a series of ballet videos for young girls. I love moms who come up with a good idea and follow through with it and I love Laylee and Laylee loves ballet so the triangle of mutual love was complete when Stephanie sent me a copy of her movie in the mail.
The DVD they sent me was Swan Lake. It features a Cliffs Notes version of Swan Lake as performed by the Paris Opera Ballet as narrated by a squeaky-voiced cartoon ballerina fairy. Although the voice is annoying, the scripting is decent and she gives a succinct telling of the story that young audiences can grasp. The dancing is beautiful and the play is broken up into acts. Between each act are teaching segments that show skilled young students from the School of American Ballet followed by preschool girls practicing the various moves as seen in Swan Lake.
There’s a bit of Baby Mozart-esque montage that goes on to reinforce the various movements but for the most part it sticks to dancing, the part we like the best. I was a little worried that Laylee wouldn’t like it because the preschool girls were too young for her. She’s 5. But it turns out she LOVES the preschool dancers because she’s “SO MUCH BETTER THAN THEM.” And sweet and humble too.
In the video she sees where she was, where she hopes to be someday soon and where she will be in her wildest dreams.
It’s fun, she loves it with a passionate love and uses it to guide her drills of various moves she’s learning in class. I actually think it’s played a significant part in her dance improvement.
To top it all off, I have a copy for one of you. If any of you have a little girl in your life who’s just aching to be a ballerina, I guarantee she’ll love this video so even if you don’t win, consider buying it for a Christmas gift.
To enter this giveaway, go to their website at www.primaprincessa.com and watch the DVD clip. Then come back here and tell me what your little ballerina would like most about the video. If there’s a clear winner for the best response of EVER, I’ll give the DVD to that commenter. If I’m torn, I’ll just choose a random winner. Enter by Tuesday night at 9pm PST, when I’ll be announcing another fun giveaway.
what a pretty ballerina she is!
I watched the clip with my sweet daughter who was completely glued to the screen. She was moving her arms in the flowey way the ballerinas arms, she wanted to try to “bounce” like them on their tip toes. She shouted “Bravo” at the end. We need this video.
It’s all about the dresses/tutus in our house! Millikins can not sit still when she hears music; and this music was no exception. But, it all comes down to the dress. And the fact that these little girls and the big ballerinas had ‘pretties’ in their hair including a little crown at one point is just a bonus!
As we were looking at your post my 3 y.o. informed me we need to buy her a ballet dress. Good to know. But when we watched the DVD clip the excitement really reached epic proportions. My 3 y.o. just said “wow” over and over again while my 18 m.o. said “mommy” repeatedly while slapping me in the chest so that I could really understand the excitement of the ballerina-ness! That DVD would be well loved in our home if we win. ;o)
I’m not even going to look. At 18mo my Cupcake still lets me dress her in her brother’s hand-me-downs and I like it that way. She still has no hair to speak of and I think she is very pretty in a Sinead O’Connor “look at my beautiful bone structure and eyes; I won’t let you get distracted by flowing tresses” way. Some how her prettiness speaks louder to me when it’s not lost among frilly clothes.
Besides her dancing style seems to be more hip-hop. So let me know when there’s a video for B-girls and we are in!
My two-year-olds both demanded to watch it over and over. B most love it because his sister loves princesses. Z loves it because she IS a princess. And they enjoy watching the dancers.
I tried to get them to dance with me … maybe if we could watch the WHOLE thing, they might join in?
(And maybe they’ll start participating in the little hand-movements in the songs at story time and in Nursery? *hope, hope*)
I also love Tchikovsky’s music … enough that I can get past Prima Princessa’s voice. *grins* Besides, after watching the clip three times, I’m starting to get attached to it.
My daughter, Claire, is also ALL ABOUT BALLET. She wants to dance on her toes and twirl and leap. She is so eager in class that she will not let anyone else be first in line. So happy to dance yet so unwilling to share – the dilemma of being four years old. If all the world could be as beautiful as a ballet…. That is her dream. We dance every day and she loves it. This video is perfect for her. She knows the Nutcracker music and story so well that she can tell me what is being danced within five seconds of hearing part of the music. We could add to her obsession by bringing Swan Lake into her world. All would be perfect!
(the pressure to make the world’s greatest comment is overwhelming me, but this is the gospel truth:) My daughter will be 2 next week. She has two older brothers. She likes to play cars and wrestle. She chases me and her siblings around the house with a dinosaur that growls when you push a button. When we go to Sam’s Club and she sees the big TV displays, she yells out “Football!” She does like me to put “pretties” in her hair and she has played with my make-up before, but it’s more likely to find her putting on my husband’s deodorant or pretending to use his electric razor. Her favorite shows are Super Why and Dora (but her favorite character is Swiper the Fox). We need intervention or she might pick a Handy Manny backpack for kindergarten. I think with this video and a little coaxing, we might help her to develop her feminine wiles.
This is awesome because this was one of my favorite comments but I couldn’t quite decide so I used random.org to pick a winner and it chose commenter number 8, which was you! Yay. Please email me privately with your contact info. kathryn@daringyoungmom.com
My daughters, 2 and 4, piled into my lap as soon as the “ballet music” came on. My older girl is in a ballet class and loves it. My younger one attends every class and watches from the sidelines, just waiting until she will be old enough for dance class too. They are currently, at this very moment, dressed in princess dresses, dancing to The Nutcracker Suite. It is quite common for one of them to turn to the other, hold out her hands, and say, “May I have this dance?” In short, they are a couple of dancing divas and would adore this video!
Emma would definitely love the little kids that are dancing! She loves to move so anything with movement and dance is the DVD for her!
Wow, that’s just about the cutest thing ever! My two year old daughter keeps begging to watch the demo movie more!
This tis the sweetest give-away so I will lend myself to groveling as a sad attempt to win this for my three dancing princesses (four if you count me -Which I do.)
We have encountered some major unexpected home repairs which eliminated all of our Christmas budget this year so I making everything for Christmas this year ( I know it’s a pathetic beg, but do I get bonus points for trying?). For my girls I was making dress-up princess clothes from sheets and oversized mama dresses picked up at the thrift store. Which they will look perfect in dancing along to this video.
So if we win call yourself Mrs. Claus because you would provide them a sweet Christmas present. And if we don’t win – Your still the most awesome (vamp-lovin) Daring Mom I know.
The boy ballerinas! Er, ballet dancers. Er, ball(et) dancers. My three-and-a-half-year-old girl would be riveted by them.
My daughter would like the chaos and the fun of the dancing.
My 8-year-old fairy princess says she’s too old for the video, but the younger two almost had heart attacks at the sight of all the tutus. My 3-year-old said, “Mom, they’re ballerinas just like me!”
I can’t compete with the best comments here, but if you’re having a drawing, please put my name in the hat. Then if I win I will only have to buy one — I have a 3 year old granddaughter who is a budding ballerina and she loves ballerina hair. My brother has 4 daughters that are all ballerinas, and I think this would appeal to the whole bunch of them. What a great idea for a Christmas gift!
The first ballet I ever saw was Swan Lake and it was one of the most magical experiences of my life. The warm theatre that smelled faintly of perfume. The hush that came over the crowd right before the curtain when up. The spectacular leaps the “court jester” did, the signets dancing together arm-in-arm, the ballerinas lining the sides of the stage as still as manequins holding perfect ballerina poses.
I have two daughters. Tessa is 6 and Emma is 2. They are both enrolled in ballet classes and love to dance. I’m waiting until they are old enough to take them to a real Swan Lake ballet, and I hope so much that the experience is as magical for them as it was for me.
My two little ballerinas will like the swans the best in the DVD… how the ballerina’s have movements like real swans. And the tutus, of course!
I just hope when they see it they will get that magical take-your-breath-away feeling I get when I see the swans dancing on the DVD ad.
Hi, I love your blog and have emerged from lurkdom bc my 2yo daughter LOVES ballet. The night before ballet class she can be heard in her bed sighing, “Ballet…scarves…princess…ohhhhh…” During class, she is so excited she has literally slipped in her own drool. She was so excited by the DVD clip that she clapped and jumped up and down and imitated the dancers doing the swanny arm-flapping and head flinging…after I told her they were swans, she started chicken-squawking!