It's that time of year when we need to register for new activities. The girls are young so we try to rotate the activities and expose them to a variety. This fall, both Miss M and Miss K will be participating in soccer and swimming. Despite my love of dance and my desire to have them follow in my footsteps, I didn't enroll them this year. All last year they did ballet and tap culminating in a spring recital. But I don't want to burn them out at such a tender age. There are plenty of years and opportunities to get involved.
The girls do take after me in that they love to dance. When Stephanie and Mary Kate were 
looking for people to review Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake, I emphatically waved my digital hand in the air yelling "Pick me! Pick me!" If you have girls, you might have already heard of Prima Princessa. If not, here's the gist - It's a hybrid presentation on DVD. Part entertainment, part education. It may be more appropriate to say that it is education under the guise of entertainment. It consists of a presentation of Swan Lake by The Paris Opera Ballet broken into acts. The acts are further broken up by mini ballet lessons explaining and demonstrating different ballet moves. The entire DVD is narrated by a youth-friendly voice and cartoon fairy princess.
looking for people to review Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake, I emphatically waved my digital hand in the air yelling "Pick me! Pick me!" If you have girls, you might have already heard of Prima Princessa. If not, here's the gist - It's a hybrid presentation on DVD. Part entertainment, part education. It may be more appropriate to say that it is education under the guise of entertainment. It consists of a presentation of Swan Lake by The Paris Opera Ballet broken into acts. The acts are further broken up by mini ballet lessons explaining and demonstrating different ballet moves. The entire DVD is narrated by a youth-friendly voice and cartoon fairy princess.
We were visiting my MIL in Alabama when I pulled out the surprise DVD for the girls to watch. I told them it was ballet and they immediately started to dance around. Even as I popped it into the DVD player and started it up, they continued their energetic twirling. I figured they were too wired and not even paying attention. Apparently I was wrong because the second the narrator said "In between each act, you get to dress up in fun pretty tutus" they tore out of the room.
I paused to see what the commotion was about, only to find that the girls had raced into the guest room and began to frantically rummage through the chest of dress up clothes that Grammy had purchased for them. A minute later, they returned to the family room all decked out and ready to watch.
Their mouths dropped open and they were mesmerized. Not only did they pay attention to the ballet, but they asked appropriate questions: Miss K - "If he don't (SIC) find her, what's going to happen?" They also repeated the tutorial words like "Peer-oh-ette" and mimicked the student dancers. I tried to take a few pictures but was chastised by Miss M when I tried to get her to hold still for a snapshot. "Mom! I'm a Swan!"
When it was over, Miss M said "I really liked it" and they both exclaimed in unison
"I want to do it again." Which they did. Even when my BIL stopped by, they insisted on retelling the story and firing it up again so he could watch it.Well, as I typed this review (back home again), a neighbor showed up with her 4 year old daughter and 18 month old son, along with two 4 year old girls she was babysitting. After playing outside for a bit, I invited them in and we popped in Prima Princessa presents Swan Lake. If you could only have seen our family room filled with 6 children dancing along with the ballet and students!
The DVD was a hit with all the kids and I enjoyed it as well. I hate to admit that I've never bothered to watch any performance of Swan Lake so it turned out to be a learning experience for me too! I highly recommend this for any family with kids who love to dance.
Stephanie and Mary Kate were so kind as to offer an additional DVD to one of my lucky readers! WooHoo! As always, you'll need to follow some rules to be able to participate. Thankfully, it's easy!
The Prize
One "Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake" DVD valued at $19.99Rules:
Participants -
... must be able to provide a United States mailing address.
... must provide an email in the first comment or have email accessible from their profile. If winner cannot be contacted immediately upon drawing, I will move on to the second random selection.
On August 18, a winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) from all comments left. I'm new to PRIZEYWinners, but I'll be attempting to submit the winner to it!
How to enter:
For the first entry -
(1) Check out the Prima Princessa video clip.
(2) Come back here and post a comment with your thoughts about it - what you thought of the presentation form, the 'characters', whatever. Nothing generic like "I think my daughter will love it." Irrelevant comments will be disqualified.
For additional entries -
(a) Add my button to your sidebar. Come back here and leave an additional comment stating that you did so.
(b) Add the Prima Princessa button to your blog. Come back here and leave an additional comment stating that you did so.
(c) Publish a post regarding this contest and link back to it. Come back here and leave a comment providing the link to your post.
Thanks again to Mary Kate and Stephanie for providing the prize for this giveaway and for creating a very fun and educational DVD!
Nicole,
Love your site. Thanks for helping to spread the word about our ballet DVD for kids. The photos in your post are adorable.
Mary Kate
Prima Princessa Productions, LLC
I let my daughter watch the clip with me and she is still dancing! She loved it.
staceyheneveld AT mac DOT com
It is a wonderful DVD
Perfect for the little girls I know!
I thought it was cute seeing the little girls trying to dance and having such a great time!
khmorgan_00 [at] yahoo [dot] com
This would be a great DVD for my granddaughters. Thanks for this excellent contest and prize!
cdwade(at)hotmail.com
My daughter and I were dancing with the cartoon! Its very cute!
cmartin0055(at)aol(dot)com
It was really neat and fun. I want to win it for my niece. She loves dancing.
I like the fact that they use a real ballet company in performance instead of "dumbing it down" for kids.
My daughter watch a ballerina movie everyday and she plays the same movie all the time, and it's old so I think it's about time to add another one and I believe this one a fantastic one. The ballet steps are easy to follow.
mginah_lp@yahoo.com
I LOVE the clip my son and daughter loved it too. I think it is great that they have REAL ballerina's. Some dance videos I've seen (ahem, Barbie) were just plain hokey compared to this one!
My kids (a girl and boy twins) love to dance. I thought only my daughter would enjoy this, but my son dod too! The steps were easy to follow. Awesome video!
The production value and music are wonderful!
I really like that it shows my daughter the steps. She really loves to dance.
dancing was great
This looks great!
I love that it shows kids dancing as well as professionals.
I could do without the animated character but I guess she isn't too bad.
Very cute! The neighbor's little girl thinks everything is "princess." She even thinks I'm a princess and I know that ship has long sailed!!!!
very cute
I like watching the children do the dances.
I love how it combines "real" ballet from the Paris Ballet Company with "real" kids - those pink matching tutus will be a big hit around here! Thanks! afdr3d@umkc.edu
I really thought is was wonderful...watched with my early riser granddaughter and it is something we both enjoy together...that's what I love the most
THANKS
fenway07@msn.com
My younger grand daughters would love this.
Thank you for having this! My 2 and 6 year old daughters would love this!
This looks like fun. I've had my eye on it for awhile for my granddaughter!
My neices love dance, and this is super cute! Very colorful and eye catching!
I really loved it!! My daughter does Ballet and thought it looked fun.
The music is wonderful and the dancers being real ballerinas is a great addition. My daughter is now begging for this DVD.
I loved the clip. This would be perfect for my niece. Congrats to the winner and thanks for the contest.
My daughter is starting a ballet class this week. She loved seeing all the little ballerinas on the clip. aewalls425@hotmail.com
i think every little girl wants to be a ballerina. I see your girls and my lily have much in common. how great is it that there are ballet steps to follow. wow
i think a 40 min dvd is perfect. my angel get board after about that long. i watched the clip and the quality was great. i was wondering how good of a job it would be but it looked awesome. id like to have it. thanks
oh wow, I love that it really features The Paris Opera Ballet! I think this is a perfect video for any ballet obsessed little girl, it ptures their attention (we just watched the clip three times and it even catches my eye LOL)
My daughter would love this prize.
oh wow, I love that it really features The Paris Opera Ballet!
erma.hurtt@sbcglobal.net
My daughter would love this!
Sweet niblets!
theyyyguy@yahoo.com
I love the variation from children dancing in the yard to ballet students to professional dancers. It's very engaging.
beccachristensen at hotmail dot com
I loved the way they used animation, live ballet and the little girls all together in the video. The instructional portions were done really well. I thought this was going to be really cheesy but I was amazed to see that it's done beautifully. This really is a nicely produced dvd.
doot65{at}comcast[dot]net
Elizabeth
This looks like a cute DVD.
I think all little girls love watching ballet - and the video clip is evidence of it!
debbiebellows [at]gmail.com
The Professionals were excellent. The ballet was well staged. The youn children dancers were cute. garrettsambo@aol.com
I like that they have real ballerinas and that you really can see them and what they are doing so it is easier to follow along.
It is great they use such variety!
The video clip is done very well...nice job!
It is great that they have real ballerinas.
I have to tell you what just happened. I was playing the clip, and my little daughter, who should be in bed for her second week of kindergarten, saw the ballerinas, and said, "How beautiful!". She loved it when the little girls were doing the ballet moves. I know that she and her sisters would love this video.
The shot of the flamingo doing a pirouette in the Prima Princessa video clip was so cute!