Tiny dancers tiptoe to Plains

Each person who walked through the Plains cafeteria after school Wednesday couldn't help stopping a second to take a look. The tiny dancers, some dressed in tutus, that were trying their hardest to keep on their tippy toes were just too cute to pass up.

The group of diminutive dancers were part of Annie Lawson's Twinkle Toes Ballet age seven and under class. Wednesday's session marked about the halfway point of their ballet season. The future ballerinas have been meeting with Lawson every Wednesday for an hour since December and Lawson plans to continue their dance instruction through the end of April.

Lawson, who started ballet when she was five, after finishing with the little ones also teaches an age eight and up class for an hour each Wednesday. Lawson said in her younger class she tries to keep it fun and incorporate games into her session, but in the older class she tries to focus more on the technical aspects of ballet. "The little kids don't have the attention span, but they do good," she said.

As many as 13 dancers have showed up to one of her classes, Lawson said. Four students were there to begin Lawson's younger class, but by the time the class ended the number had doubled, as the want-to-be ballerinas kept filtering in, eager to join their friends in dance.

One of the children in the class was Lilly Johnson, Lawson's 5-year-old daughter. Lawson said Lilly, who was dressed in a pink leotard and sequin tutu, was the reason she started Twinkle Toes Ballet last year. She said Lilly started ballet when she was 3 years old and living just north of Seattle.

Lawson, who was called Twinkle Toes by her grandma, said after moving to Plains in 2005, Lilly kept asking her when she could take ballet. Lawson had practiced ballet for 13 years, but she didn't want to drive to Missoula for her daughter's lesson and thought she had enough ballet experience to teach it. "I thought I can do it," Lawson said.

Lawson, who was a nanny for five years and worked in a day care in Washington, said that besides her ballet experience she had also spent a lot time with children. "My love of ballet and my love of kids just kind of came together, I guess," Lawson said.

Lawson, who loved to go watch "The Nutcracker," as a child, said like all little girls she loved to dress up and this is what drew her into ballet. "Most little girls like it because they get to dress up and get to wear tutus," she said. She said while it may have been the tutus that drew her to the ballet, it was the live piano during classes and her brilliant teachers that kept her doing it for 13 years.

Teaching such a difficult art to such young children does pose its challenges, Lawson said. She said young children like to daydream and play with the other students, so she needs to keep the classes as interesting as possible, but the hardest part is still teaching them the techniques of the dance. "Getting them to do stuff that their not use to doing," Lawson said was the most difficult thing in teaching the children.

Despite the difficulties, Lawson said she has seen a lot of progress in her students. "Every week they get better and better," she said. Lawson said that ballet teaches children coordination, discipline, rhythm, grace, and one her students last year said it even helped her posture.

Lawson said since starting the ballet lessons last year her students have really taken to it. "The kids love it," she said. "They always want to come back, so I guess that's positive," she added. Lawson said she has also heard a lot of positive things from the dancer's parents. She said some parents like the lessons because they're able to run errands after dropping their children off for an hour, but some parents like to stay and watch the class. Lawson said when the parents stay they always get the best from their child. "They kind of show off a little bit and do their best, of course," she said.

Lawson said she hasn't decided if the ballerinas will hold a recital at the end of their lessons this year. She said she would eventually like to expand Twinkle Toes Ballet to teach more age groups and also get children to a more advanced level in ballet, so they can hold regular programs and recitals for parents.