AIBU to take 3 year old to swan lake.

[Lonelymummyof1]

Swan lake it showing in july and daughter is obsessed with it !
It does not have a age requirement listed but is 3 too young ?

Lonely that's amazing it's made my day, I hope she has a fabulous time with many more to come

OP I'm so glad the teacher managed to sort something out - how lovely. I hope your daughter has a great time.

Boo hiss to the ROH though. But you don't need them now!

My solution (heartless adult) would be to buy her the cinderella DVD, split her allegiance to swan lake and then take her to "My first ballet: cinderella". TBH if you are able to get to on it is probably worth going anyway they are great.

www.roh.org.uk/products/cinderella-dvd-birmingham-royal-ballet

It was a "my first opera" when I was about 6 (so many years ago) that started my massive love of opera. I go the the ROH a lot (mostly opera but I do go to some ballet - am seeing one of the Marisnky ballets) and I really wouldn't recommend taking a small person especially in the evening. Sorry.

Apologies hadn't seen your decision not to go to the ROH. I hope the ballet teacher comes up trumps.

And I really recommend the "my first ballet" productions (in case it wasn't clear enough! They aren't always that expensive either. Northern Ballet's "Short ballet for small people of goldilocks is at Sadler's Wells on 12th May. There are tickets available for £8.

ENB my first.... are fab, taken my littlest to a couple in the past, she loves it and is really into ballet dances 7/8 hrs a week now

opinionatefreak I too would be doing a bit of reverse engineering and getting her into Cinderella alongside Swan Lake (and maybe a couple of others too) so that then the ENB 'My First' would be a special and thrilling experience.

OP, I truly hope your little DD and you have a thoroughly fantastic time meeting the performers and getting to go onstage, and making memories. Book the ENB performance too - the more ballet the better!

Is she liable to want to talk a lot during the performance, and if so, is she able to understand that she should not?

I have been to a ballet at the Royal Opera House where a small child nearby was constantly asking her mother questions. The tickets were very expensive and it was extremely irritating, especially since the parent evidently thought it OK to answer every time and didn't once tell her to be quiet.
Personally I don't think children should be taken to such events until they are old enough to understand that they must keep quiet - and the parents ditto.

gettinglikeyourmother
RTFT. Or even a little bit of it, before you comment on it ten pages in...

Actually, people commenting who haven't read the thread is useful, I think, because it shows what would happen if someone took a 3-year-old to the ballet. People wouldn't know there was any back story. They would just be - rightfully - furious that a 3-year-old (not necessarily OP's!) was fidgeting/talking/needing loo.

Actually - half a braggy moment here - I took my 3-year-old dd to a classical concert in the US. The people around us were marvelling that she was so well-behaved and then - at the end we were summoned up on stage and the conductor congratulated her and gave us all free tickets to another performance! (In actual fact dd is - still - exceptionally quiet whatever the situation and I can't say this has always done her any favours...)

Mousy ime classical music audiences are more than happy to see children at concerts. Especially the older generation - they will talk to and engage with kids in the interval and at the end and always are kind to them. Ballet audiences going on what's been said here sound horrible!

Ballet audiences are neither "horrible" nor "savage" and I've been taking my dd to watch ballet for over 14 years. Of course you get the odd snarky audience member, but you get that anywhere, even in the cinema. Many people go to the ballet as an escape, to immerse themselves completely in the dancing, music, and story. If you do this and pay £££ for your seat, any distraction can be annoying. Not just from children, but adults too.

The ROH as a rule does a great deal to encourage young ballet-goers, with Family Sundays, Welcome Performances, Schools' matinées for both Primary and Secondary schools, Student membership and then Young Friend. But they have a lower age limit of 5 and that's their prerogative. Hence ENB's "My First..." and Northern's ballets for children are much more suited to little ones.

I have RTFT BTW, this is in response to the "unhelpful ROH" and "nasty ballet-goers" comments.

Ok fair enough - I guess it's just that after reading this thread I've kind of got the impression that ballet is performed in auditoriums full of hundreds of Lasswithedelicateairs!

I remember music teacher telling us at school that the only movement permitted at a classical performance was the tapping of one's toe silently inside one's shoe...

😂😂 No, definitely not.

That sounds fabulously genteel, mousymary ☺️

If you do this and pay £££ for your seat, any distraction can be annoying. Not just from children, but adults too.

Yes to this -- my god, the coughers at the ROH. They appear to attend for the sole purpose of letting rip a good rasping lungful any time there's a quiet bit in an opera, or when Violetta/Mimi is dying.

I think people are just pointing out that it's a very different set of expectations to, say, being in the audience for a west end musical, even though those tickets can also be very expensive. No eating, no talking, no leaving for a loo break and being allowed back in immediately etc.

Top post, Elphaba. Wasn't it Harold Pinter who said that coughing in the audience is a sign of aggression? I go to the theatre at least once a week (often 2 or 3 times) as part of my work, and I can see Pinter's point. And don't get me started on people who think the overture is their music to talk through.

Oh YES! The Coughers!! 😱😱😱 The place sounds like a bloody TB ward sometimes! 😂

Oddly enough I noticed the coughing via cinema live broadcast more than I do at the ROH itself. There must have been something nasty going round during the run of "Jewels".

There is more than one make a wish type charity.

I definitely see which one could help you .

Good that you've found a solution but just wanted to say I took dd2 to see the Nutcracker when she was 3 and she didn't move for the entire performance. Dd3 would have been a different story

I think coughing is definitely aggression, or at least a weird kind of self-assertion. It's almost never an 'I've got a bad cold' type cough in which case people should dose themselves up, bring cough lozenges or stay at home, anyway it's more insistent, ultra-loud throat-clearing. Is it fair to say it's also statistically usually male?

I have taken my kids to lots of shows over the years and I would say 3 is definitely too young for Swan Lake. My kids went to a young adaption of My First Ballet - Swan Lake when they were about 5 and 7 and they just about managed that.

Why can't I eat or drink at the ballet?

Eating and drinking isn't allowed at the ROH Momma.