Degas and the Dancer

Two weeks ago, the same day Charity got her stitches, we were scheduled to see Inland Pacific Ballet's Cinderella, with our school group.  Even though I was in Urgent Care with Charity, Julie took my boys  to the ballet.  What would I do without her?  Tanner said it wasn't as exciting as the Nutcracker but it was okay.  Neither of them were too impressed with the Prince's outfit though.  Since we were studying Impressionist painters, I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to study Degas.  We did...

And, I invited my sister over to meet with a few of the families who went to the ballet.  Monica danced professionally for years.  She started at Inland Pacific Ballet, went onto Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, and spent the last 6 or so years of her career at Nevada Ballet Theater.  It was fun to hear her talk about her dancing.  She did a great job talking to the kids.  She taught the kids a little waltz, but some of the boys had a hard time dancing with girls.  So silly.  It was so fun to watch a few of the younger girls mesmerized by a real ballerina.

 

After Monica's presentation, a few of the families headed to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena where we saw many Degas paintings and sculptures on display, as well as many other Impressionist paintings.  Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, they were all there!  Unfortunately, Charity is turning into a real 2 year old and was not on her best behavior.  Hunter, Charity, and I spent most of the time out in the sculpture garden while Monica took Tanner through the Museum.  I sure was grateful for an extra adult with me!  The garden was beautiful and had a huge lily pond (can you say Monet?)  I had so many great ideas (go out to lily pond, paint it in fashion of Monet, then go look at his actual painting, etc, etc) to do at this Museum next time we study Impressionist painters when my 2 year old is like 10.  That will be the day!  Anyways, the museum had many rules, one of which was that I could not keep my small sling type purse in the museum, so I had no camera during the whole trip.  But I did snap a few shots in front of the museum...

  

 Re-enacting the sculptures...

Rodin's "The Thinker"

Don't let those cute looks deceive you, Charity is FULL of mischief...

It was fun teaching my kids about ballet and Degas even though they may never be all that into this beautiful, demanding art- at least they will have an appreciation for it!