Master Z and I started creative dance classes at Mangala studios 6 weeks ago. I have been searching for some kind of mum and bub yoga class for a while now, without success. The few that I managed to find were for really little bubs and/or too far away to be good options. Then one weekend when out walking, R and I noticed the sign to Mangala Studios, advertising yoga and creative dance for children and adults. Two days later, I met three different people in the course of my morning who spoke highly of the studio, so I rang that afternoon and happily we were able to get a place almost immediately.
Each week, the room is set up differently, and there are different dance activities following the theme of the room. The first half hour is various dance activities which change from week to week. The last 15 minutes is always the same routine, thus suiting toddlers’ general desire for routine and patterns. Today the set up was so magical that I just had to write about it.
We walked in to see autumn leaves scattered around the room, and a bench with two lengths of silk hanging down in front of it; another length of soft, warm fabric hanging from a different section of the ceiling, a length of floral fabric laid on the ground, three small branches of autumn leaves suspended from the ceiling and cushions scattered throughout the room. It was just magical. The activities were so inspiring too – I think that Master Z loved today’s class best of all so far.
The first activity was for the children to dance from leaf to leaf and seeing what was underneath them. Each leaf had a little wooden ladybird nestled under it. Master Z loves ladybirds so he was captivated by this. At the end of that activity, all the children collected the ladybirds and returned them to Helen (the teacher), ready for the next activity….hiding insects! Helen produced a basket full of toy insects and the children had to collect one, show it to their parent and go and hide it in the room, then the parent had to find it. Master z took such delight in this activity, carefully choosing which cushion to hide his beetle under, making sure that the beetle was completly hidden, and then going and hiding himself in the fabrics for me to find!
The next couple of activities were more abstract – parents and children creating tree shapes with their limbs, general dancing around – but he really enjoyed the activity of moving like an insect and then began practising his rolls. He is getting really good with his rolls and can almost do a full somersault now. At one point during class, he ran away from the podium (where we return to between activities, so Helen can demonstrate the next one), and did a somersault on the fabric. Helen even said that we couldn’t really tell him off (gently) when he had just done such a good roll!
There were more children than usual today. It was the start of a new trimester so I suspect a number of new children and children moving up age levels. There was definitely a different energy today, more restlessness and mischief on the children’s part and a bit more disengagement from some of the parents, though hard to tell how much is disengagement and how much is physical difficulty with reining in energetic toddlers – I struggled today because my knees and back are really inflamed and sore, making getting up and down off the floor quite painful.
The final 15 minutes follows the pattern of blanket ride – children lie on a blanket with their pillow and parents pull the blanket around the room very slowly; bubbles – child and parent lie on the blanket and Helen walks around blowing bubbles over each pair; tricks – parent helps child do things like somersaults, hanging upside down, wheelbarrows etc; candle time – all the children sit around Helen’s blanket and have a turn each of snuffing out the candle and blowing out the candle.
Usually the children are really attentive and quiet, watching each other as the candle goes around. Today, however, it was like mischievous pixies going from child to child, encouraging one to click their tongue, another to get up and run around, yet another to start singing, and general restlessness in all. There were two children in particular leading with the noises, and one with the running around, but nearly all the other children were picking up on it, which was unusual. I’m not sure if it was because there were so many more children today, or just something in the air today. I guess we’ll see next week.
I really hope that it is just one off week, because I have really enjoyed watching Master Z learn to blow out the candle and sit quietly. I think it is important for him to be able to run around and shout and be loud, but also to have times of stillness and quiet and breathing. This is why I have looked for a yoga class, or something similar.
I’ve heard a couple of the parents mutter a little about how Helen doesn’t understand toddlers with some of the things that she asks of them. I like that she expects something more than what we might expect of our children and just sometimes I think the instructions are as much for the parents as for the children, a way to get parents to teach gentle ways of doing things, and respect for their surroundings and the other people and items in the class. I think that it’s important for children to be taught respect and to start teaching them concepts and actions before we think that they are capable of learning them. One thing that Master Z is teaching me is that it is too easy to underestimate his capabilities and his understanding. By pitching my conversation and my expectations of his understanding at a higher level than I think he is necessarily capable of, he regularly surprises me. If I pitched to where I thought his limitations were, he wouldn’t be given the opportunity to show me just how much more he really understands and can follow.
After candle time is the solo dance. Each child has a turn of dancing around the room with Helen, before leaving the room with their parent. Master Z loves this part and eagerly awaits his turn each week. He loves watching the other children and is learning to tap the beat of the music, although I’m not allowed to clap! He holds my hands down on either side of him to ensure that I don’t clap – I think he finds it distracting.
Our room – whilst an odd shape, it is not actually circular. That’s just the wide-angle lens talking. Note the most useless built-in robes ever – an old fireplace enclosed, clothes hanging rod inserted, doors hung and voila! The real estate ad can claim BIR. Nice. Even better when storage items come in a triangular shape – yes, the interior of the robe is triangular. 
Our room, from other side. The wall with blue swatches on it, and the wall sort-of containing the world’s most useless built-in robe will have floor to ceiling robes put in, custom designed to fit our clothes. Oh the bliss of having a hanging rod high enough that my long dresses won’t drag on the ground.
