The Most Magical Week of Summer

If you drove past the Bourbon Square shopping center at all last week, your view of Town and Village School of Dance was probably obscured by a haze of glitter. That's because once a year, for five days, the greatest extravaganza of all time comes to the studio. I call it Fairytale Princess Camp. Glitter flies, tutus swirl, and the little girls have a lot of fun, but no-one has as much fun as me.

What is this? The portal to Valhalla? Something like that. This was the magic tunnel that led us to the Land of Fairytales.

But before we could get to Fairytale Land, the girls had to spend some time in the castle, learning how to be princesses.

Here a few of my students exhibit the castle's secondary use as a picture backdrop.

The castle shimmered inside and out with incandescent beauty...

We played 4 corners with a princess twist...

...And each princess made a lantern to use for our end of the week routine "I See the Light".

On Tuesday, the tunnel led us into Snow White's world. After everyone threw a coin into her wishing well, and we did the wishing dance, the princesses had to navigate the dark forest.

When everyone had safely emerged from the underbrush, the princesses worked together to clean up the dwarve's cottage, which included hanging out the laundry.

After we finished Snow White's story, we celebrated with the happily ever after dance and each princess got to decorate their own tiara.

Wednesday was Cinderella day. While "Sing, Sweet Nightingale" played in the background, we scrubbed the floor (#childlabor) and blew bubbles. The princesses were able to go to the royal ball thanks to their fairy godmother, Mrs. Pat, who delivered tutus and tiaras to them.

Thursday was Sleeping Beauty day. The dwarves' cottage made a reappearance, this time as "The Cottage in the Woods", the princesses re-enacted the three good fairies attempts at cake making, and everyone got a chance to prick their finger on the spinning wheel and dramatically fall into the 100 year slumber.

Moms, sisters and grandmas were invited to join the fun on Friday for our Royal Ball. Each princess was properly announced, and got a real taste of power as they walked across the room princess-style and curtsied to greet the peasants. They exhibited all the fun dances we learned throughout the week, and moms helped out with manicures and the making of magic wands. The princesses left with a cupcake, a pouch of pixie dust, and -I hope- a little more magic in their lives.

~If your little princess want to get in on the magic, join us for camp next year, or contact Town and Village School of Dance for information about having a princess-themed dancing birthday. (tandvdance@gmail.com)~