Dear Joanie.
Among all the things you're doing in your exciting and busy life, you're dancing--and so am I. Will you be another dancer in the family? You seem not so sure in the picture, but there are some great videos of you dancing, like the "Go, Joanie" where you are stamping your feet to the guitar music in the park. It does my heart good, because I'm a life-long dancer, even up to today, when I take at least three dance classes a week.
Our costumes haven't changed all that much. Dancers still wear little skirts and leotards. What really hasn't ever changed are the ballet slippers that you have on. I have worn out so many pairs of them. The white costume I have on was unique to the dance class I took in Corpus Christi. It had to be ironed and starched, with no creases. We really could not go to class without our costumes being perfectly ironed.
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| Joanie in Dance Costume 2022 |
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| GG Katie in Dance Costume 1947 |
I was dancing before I ever had lessons, and I think you were, too. I was a little older that you when I started classes. I was in the second grade, I think. My mother, in her wisdom, decided I really needed classes and she needed for me to be in classes because otherwise I would be dancing up and down the aisles at the grocery store, and all throughout the house and out the door and down the sidewalk. I think someone said to my mother, "Sign that little girl up for classes!"
I took ballet, tap, and a class called "adagio," which today is called gymnastics, I think. Adagio consisted of headstands, cartwheels, back bends, and back flips, all of which I loved to do. Ballet was classical, and I'm so glad I had those classes, not only because I love ballet, but also because it is the foundation for all dance forms. I practiced and practiced at home. I'm pretty sure I had a record and record player so that I could put my rehearsal music on.
I did love my recitals, but only two stand out for me. My tap recital was done to "Shrimp Boats Are A'Coming” and my ballet memory of the Waltz of the Flowers, from Swan Lake.
Today, I do NIA dance and also Latin/Caribbean African dance. As long as I can move, I will dance.
In other news. Dougie and I continue our life at the Carillon, although we have some time to spend in our mountain house between renters, and that's where we are now on a cold and rainy October day. It's a spendid fall here in Colorado and the aspen are really showing off with their golds and yellows.
This week you Grandmother Coco and Great Aunt Julie came to Colorado to see me and to meet their newest nephew, Luca, who is their brother Andre's baby boy, who is eight months old. We had a great party up in the mountains, with a spaghetti dinner and good, good family time. We had that dinner on your mom's birthday, so were were able to do a Facetime call (do you know what that is?) with her as she and your dad were going to the play, "Six."
The pictures and videos we've seen of you lately show us that you're a very active, agile, and graceful two-and-a-half year old who will climb up anything in sight. Keep climbing and keep dancing.
Love,
GG Katie
