Dancing With Children

Today we had another great performance at the Collingwood Toy Library Fair.



All the kids were superb, and are, I think, starting to look like a very professional little troupe of tappers. Cherub's class are able to do their number without my help ...



... and Climber's class of 9 and 10 year olds are very impressive indeed, whether they be beating out an acapella number or a traditional Shim-sham.



But today I want to talk about one little tapper: H. He is the second child of a really really lovely family, and his adorable big sister has been dancing with me for ages. H is nearly 5, and has Aspergers. He has, I gather, been quite the handful. I do remember frequently both hearing him shriek and wail when his sister first came to dance with me, and seeing him carried outside by a parent whilst obviously in the throes of a great passionate razz. However, recently, and I believe at his own instigation, he started doing tap classes with me too, much to the delight of his family and his paediatrician. He has been coming along in leaps and bounds, and if we occasionally have problems with co-operation, they are, these days, short-lived and really, no more remarkable than other children in his age group. Actually, his mother quite often comes and thanks me for my patience with him, and I can say quite honestly that he doesn't really push my patience, that I think he's great, and doing a really good job, and coming along so well. He is certainly not the only child who has to stop the class so they can tell me something.

At today's performance, I sidled up to his Mum and said nobody else from his class group has turned up, do you think H would dance on his own with me or would it be too much for him? She was of the opinion that we should give it a go, particularly as he'd gone to the effort of dressing up for the day and was wearing his brand new, very own tap-shoes. So H and I opened the performance together, and although he became slightly distractable for a little moment during the song, (he just really needed to tell me that he had this song on their ipod) he danced the whole Yellow Submarine with me like a champion.




(Apologies for my demented son in the background.)



Proud doesn't even cover it.

Full photo set here.
Previous year performances at this event : 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.