When Savannah was 2 1/2 she started taking ballet at a small studio in Blaine WA, the Blaine Conservatory. In the beginning she was a wreck, afraid and teary... until I bought her a black ballet skirt with a heart shaped "diamond" on the bow. The next class she was falling in love with ballet. She loved walking on her tip-toes, twirling and the pretty music.
June 2008: after her second ballet recital where her class were butterflies
While Savannah was taking ballet class I had enrolled Baden in a pre-school gymnastics class as a form of physical therapy after just come home from his orphanage in China. When we adopted Baden he really had no physical strength, muscle tone, stamina or coordination. I thought gymnastics would be a great place to begin developing these physical aspects. In the beginning Savannah was content to sit on the side-lines while Baden had his class. That lasted one session. Before long Savannah was in on the action and having fun. Ballet was still her first love because it was much prettier than gymnastics, in her mind at least. By the end of the school year and summer camps Savannah was ready to say zai jian (Mandarin for "good-bye) to gymnastics and ballet. It was time to find something new.
At the time Scott had just begun playing hockey again on a local recreation team and the kids loved spending time at the Bellingham Sportsplex watching him play on the evenings they could stay up late. I thought I'd capitalize on Savannah's intrigue and introduce her to figure skating. Little did I know that when I signed her up for Snow Plow Sam 1 that this would become the sport that she would love. She was 4 years old at the time and was in heaven on the ice. It didn't matter if she fell down, she'd pick herself up and keep going. Just as had been the case with Savannah and gymnastics, Baden in the beginning was content watching Savannah skate - until he wasn't. Baden decided to opt out of gymnastics and pursue skating, determined to eventually play hockey like Scott. As far as Baden's physical growth, putting him on the ice was the best thing I could have done from him - improving his leg and core strength as well as his confidence. Savannah was spurred on by the competition of her brother, determined to stay ahead of him.
Savannah's very first skating lesson
and afterwards, a very happy girl
Savannah has just finished her second year of skating and loves it even more than she did in the beginning. She loves the prettiness of it and though she really wants to learn how to jump, she is enthralled with spins.
Last Winter Session her instructor approached me saying that Savannah was at a point where she couldn't progress on rental skates because of the blades being dull and the toe picks shaved off. For her 6th birthday Savannah was given her first pair of figure skates from one set of grand-parents and a new skating dress from another set of grand-parents (Santa had brought her first skating dress just months before, which she had already started to out grow). You would think she'd just been handed the moon!
The next session rolls around and after finishing a make-up class the instructor came up to me and said that he couldn't believe how much she'd improved since the last time he'd taught her and asked if I'd looked at signing her up for the Summer Breeze competition that the Bellingham Figure Skating Club and Sportsplex put on. I had noticed it, but not given it much attention. Before I knew it I had Savannah signed up for the prep class and competition for the end of June. What was a once a week class with practicing during the Public Skate time on Monday afternoons turned into regular class once a week, and Summer Breeze prep class twice a week as well as practice on Monday afternoons, and 20 minutes with her new coach each Wednesday. Not once did she complain and if anything her smile only grew. Baden was still doing his skating class, and now in his own skates, and on the days he didn't skate was happy to hang out with some of the other brother's who were there while their sister's skated.
In late June Savannah skated in her first competition and finished with the Gold Medal. Although she didn't have anyone competing against her, she wasn't necessarily guaranteed 1st place if she didn't complete all the elements in her program.
Last Friday she competed for the Bellingham Figure Skating Club at the annual Pacific Northwest Inter-club Championships (PNIC) this time held in Everett, a city 1 hour south of Bellingham. This time she was up against one other girl, who from where we sat appeared to be around 10 years-old. Savannah was nervous, understandably, because she knew just from looking around Comcast Arena that there would be more people watching her. When she noticed that the ice she would skate on didn't have the hockey lines painted on that she used as a guide for her program she became a bit more anxious. Coach Sonny assured her that she would be okay and that she knew her program and no longer needed the lines. I blew fairy dust on her for bravery and good luck and off she went with her coach and God-sister Ellie, who was also skating in her first performance, to wait their turns.
Ellie and Savannah before they skated
I am so proud of Savannah! She finished with another Gold Medal and even more valuable was the pride beaming from her eyes and radiating from her smile. She was just glowing!
She has found a sport that makes her happy that allows her to compete against herself and challenge her through constant improvement. I love that she doesn't see these competitions as a contest, but rather a performance no different that any other recital or show. Though I skated as a kid, I never did anything beyond one winter show before going back to ballet so I could work on getting into toe shoes. Some people remark about the amount of time Savannah spends at the rink, and the reality is that it's really no different from the time consumed by kids who are really into soccer or some other sport. If you're going to get better at anything it requires practice, and figure skating just happens to be a sport that is much less portable. If this is the sport that she wants to do then as her mom I need to support her. The real challenge will happen when Baden finds his niche, in the meantime "exposure" is the name of the game for him.
