Just Because It's Dancing

... does not mean that it is child friendly.

The past few weeks I've been struck by how unaware parents and teachers are of what they are exposing the young minds in their care too. A few weekends ago I went to go see the Russian Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet. Now I'm not sure if the parents who brought their 3 and 4 year olds to the show didn't know the plot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - but child friendly is not a phrase I would use to describe it. As we were leaving the performance several of the parents were discussing the sex scene and how to explain it to their young children who were asking about the rolling around on the stage.

The next day Catherine and I went to see Billy Elliot where we played the game "who is the youngest person in the audience" - there was a five year old who definitely won. Grant it there was enough swearing to make even me uncomfortable at points in the show and the plot was very politically centered, but still there were school groups all over. How do these teachers and parents explain to their students/ children the political context that lead to the slaying of a Margaret Thatcher doll? Or why there was so much swearing?

Sometimes I wonder if people actually take time to review what they are exposing their children too. Let's be honest - Billy Elliot has been made into a movie, its one of the few Broadway cds to actually have a parental advisory label, and it has been playing long enough that there are many reviews and synopsis of the production in circulation on the Internet.

Romeo and Juliet is a classic that most of us read in 9th grade and was made into a very poor, but fair, modern film. You have no one to blame but yourselves for not doing a bit of quick research before exposing your child, and thus yourself, to lots of questionable material that brings about hard conversations and questions. I cannot even fathom what teacher's would have to be accountable for once words gets out about the show(s). All I could think was that dancing is not a synonym for child friendly. The cute little ballet our girls learn from the age of 3 on - is not the same as Broadway or professional ballet - both of which tend to be sexual in nature, at the least, and critiques of society at their best. Irony would have it that some of the same people who are pro-censorship do not even research what they expose their children to. Leading me to question: how do we expose children to culture while respecting their developmental age and those who are viewing the shows around them? And if we insist on trying to make the entire would child friendly, what does that say about those who have no interest in having children or are unable to do so?