Ballet with Heart
“Mummy where is me?”
My son with his dark skin and his afro locs looked into my eyes as we were reading yet another book about ballet in bed and he asked me “mummy where is me?”.
It is not unusual for my children to identify with characters in the stories we read, neither is it unusual that there are very few that look like them.
However for the past 4 years I have been actively building a library of fun, adventurous, books where my children can see themselves reflected, have their minds challenged and have a good giggle.
My daughter who is now 7, developed an interested in ballet a few years back and so we got a bunch of books to read more and learn about this form of dance.
We also visited quite a few schools before signing her up for classes at The International Ballet School in Stockholm run by Ms Gina Tse.
The fact that Ms Gina is the former Principal dancer for The Royal Swedish Ballet and has danced in as Principal in countries across the globe is not the thing the made us decide on that school. The International Ballet School was a winner for us because it is incredibly child-focused and child centered. The teaching style is fun and pedagogical which means my kids feel like they are going to dance class to have fun and they just happen to learn some pretty awesome things at the same time. The fact that they are taught by international experts is pure delicious icing on the cake!
Parents all over Stockholm must agree with us because the classes are full, incredibly diverse and welcoming.
A few years later my son also developed an interest in Ballet and started classes there too. When he asked me to find him ballet picture books with a little brown boy, I took on the challenge and have been failing miserably. It had been hard to find picture books with little brown girls for my daughter but over the past years this has been changing.
Some of our favourite ballet reads
‘Boys Dance’ was just released in Autumn 2020 and is an Absolut hit!
In early spring, I started crafting a story for Louis in my head which I would tell him sometimes at bedtime.
In summer 2021 that story will come to life in a picture book taking inspiration from my children, their anxieties, their strengths, the school environment and Ms Gina herself.
At Mbife we believe in the arts, in inclusion, in powering dreams and we believe that Ballet with Heart will represent all our ideals and more.
The book will be illustrated by the amazing Sawyer Cloud with whom we wrote our latest release Our Favourite Things.
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