This little lady is The Sassy One. She is a freakin' amazing ballerina! This is my blog so I'm allowed to brag about the children that I created! Plus, what is a farmhouse without the people inside? It's a house, not a home. This is one of our tribe that make this freakin' awesome Farmhouse, a home! She has danced since she was 3. From her first day, I was told that she had a gift for dance. That gift has grown into an amazing talent and she loves it more than anything! Even more than her smart phone and you know that in this day and age... that's A LOT!!! This last year has been a rough one for her. If any of you are familiar with competitive dance, it's hard on the mind and body. From stretch classes where the dancers are required to sit in "super splits" for several minutes all the way down to force stretching extensions that your body is just not ready for, it's rough! This is the world of competitive dance.
This is her team. They are pretty amazing, but Haven just wasn't loving it. She danced hard and didn't let her team down, but all of the stuff outside of the actual dancing wore her out. If you can't pick her out, she's the little blonde in the middle and her facial expression pretty much sums up her feelings about the politics and drama of competitive dance! I love her!!!
Unfortunately, after years of avoiding injury, this last year our 10 year old has had her fair share. It started with a broken foot last fall and ended with a torn hip flexor and pulled labrum compliments of her over eager ballet teacher. Then she ended the year with a sprained wrist because her coaches made her dance full out before she was ready and she fell pretty hard. In competitive dance, if you're puking, you come and dance with a garbage can next to you. If you are in the hospital, you ask to be discharged in time for rehearsal because if you miss, you're out of the dance and blackballed FOR-EV-ER!
Needless to say, after 10 years at the same studio, we decided to look for teachers that could help her with her rare talent and leave behind those that couldn't. To keep her spirits up, we promised her a studio where she could practice. So, as part of the basement finishing, we added a raised floor with a marley top so that she could dance all day and all night if she so desired. It would have been wonderful had we had the 9 ft ceilings that we were supposed to have {Argh! Stronzo!} but although she won't be practicing a Pas down there, she can still turn and run choreography so she is happy. In these pics, the marley wasn't even installed and she couldn't wait to get down there! Here are some photos after the install. We still have to touch up the baseboards, run the TV wiring behind the wall and add shutters, but overall, it turned out great! Shouldn't every Farmhouse have a dance studio? Yes... the answer is always YES!
