[aj70]

Hi! DD is keen to have a Ballet/Swan Lake party for her 6th bday. She actually doesn't do ballet classes, has just started to show interest...anyway am stumped as to what activities to include for about 10 6 year old girls? Any ideas, games especially?! Thanks!

[anna.louise]

Hi There

We did a ballet party for my daughters 8th birthday last year
She was doing ballet so was very into it - from memory only one of her friends was also doing ballet so all the other kids were new to it.

There are plenty of people on line who will come to your house and give a ballet lesson but I did not want that - they need a bit of room and our house is small

We found a dance company that does lessons at their own dance studio
I brought the food and we had a picnic on the floor, we played pass the parcel as well as some dance games like freeze. The kids also had a 1 hour ballet lesson and choreographed(SP?) a dance to show all the parents at pick up time

It was lots of fun
Good luck
Regards
Anna

[MicM]

We did a similar thing, went to a ballet school for the party.

Ballet teachers are used to entertaining girls of that age & will do a great job.

[Julie3Girls]

Depends on what sort of thing you want....

Simple at home party ...
buy ballet themed decorations - there are plates/serviettes around with ballet slippers on them etc. Check around for a ballet slipper pinata
Generally all pretty pink, silver, pale blue

find some ballerina novelties - little notepads with ballet pictures, etc, I'm sure you'd find some if you did a search on ebay. Use them as prizes for the normal party games, such as pass the parcel.

Go with a barbie theme ... apart from the obvious Barbie in Swan Lake movie, there are a couple of others that were ballet themed, like the 12 dancing princesses, and there is a brand new one due out the first week of march (Barbie and the pink shoes) all about ballet, you could probably find stuff relating to that. You can always find colouring sheets to print off for the movies, or buying little barbie ballerina stuff.

Play musical statues with a bit of classical music, telling them to pretend to be ballerinas

Find some cheap little tulle skirts and give one to each girl, so they can all be ballerinas. Light scarfs are great for dancing around pretending to be ballerinas.

Something a bit more ...
Ring the local studios, see if any of them have any senior students who would like to make a few dollars of a Saturday afternoon, to come and teach the girls a few little steps, like first position, second position, an pirourette etc. I know our studios have some of the high school girls who are actually teacher assistants in the classes for the little ones, they would be perfectly able to entertain the kids with the simple steps for an hour or so.

Or a step further ..
Ring the local studios and see if any run any special birthday parties. It would have a bit more of a professional feel to it. Even if they don't normally do it, they might be interested - after, it brings 10 little girls into their studio who might decide that they absolutely LOVE ballet and must do it.