Ballet Class Blues

Gabriella's first ballet class didn't go exactly as I thought. We walked into the room and I noticed Gabriella was looking a bit anxious. Before all the girls even arrived the teacher started showing the girls passe and then first position. Gabriella immediately stuck herself in my lap and said, "I can't do that!" Thus, while the other little girls galloped, learned positions and turned on tip toes, Gabriella stayed firmly embedded in my lap and would not be convinced to join them. She told me several times that she wanted to go home.

I've never seen Gabriella be like that in a social situation. Usually she jumps right in, introduces herself and never bothers to even look back at me. However, it seems that Gabriella has pretty strong performance anxiety and I think that was the issue today. She is rather unusually afraid of failure for a three year old. She saw the teacher asking those girls to do things that looked hard and that was that.

When we got home I explained the situation to Jonathan and he asked Gabriella to show him some of the dance moves she had learned. At first she wouldn't, but then he struck a random pose and asked her if he was doing first position correctly. She then helped him move his feet to look "like a pizza" (in a "V") and helped him get his arms in the right position. She certainly took everything in even if she didn't participate. Jonathan made a show of saying that he had never done ballet before and that it was sometimes hard to get his feet in the right place etc..

Does anyone else have thoughts about performance anxiety in children? Do you know of any books that feature a child learning something new and challenging?