Are you looking for a special gift for a young dancer? The best answer may be a surprise to you – charms.
I once ran a dance store and my best-seller was a silver ballet slipper charm pendant. Parents and children alike adored it!
That was some time ago, before the current enthusiasm for charms such as Pandora and Troll. So, considering a ballet shoe charm was so sought after then, I can only guess how sought after it would be now!
Now, you can find quite a variety of dance-related charms and charm bracelets. There are ballet shoes (one shoe or two!), ballet dancers in a range of poses, and tutus for ballet dancers. For flamenco lovers, there are flamenco fans and sometimes, flamenco dancers. I’ve seen ballroom dancing couples,tap dancers, and shoes for tap, tango, Irish and Scottish dancing.
There’s a lot less choice in Pandora charms, in other, compatible ranges. Pandora charms need to be chunky to allow for the hole through the middle, so it’s hard to create a delicate charm which reflects the spirit of dancing. I have seen some ballet shoe charms but they are too chunky for my taste!
You will find several Pandora charms engraved with the word ‘dance’ – and of course their Murano glass beads have beautiful swirling colors which seem to be dancing all by themselves!
You’ll sometimes hear the saying “lucky” charms. I always assumed that meant charms shaped like a four leaf clover or a horseshoe. However I was told the story of a woman who got a charm bracelet for her birthday. It didn’t have a horseshoe, but she soon discovered that when she was wearing it, good things happened -and when she didn’t wear it, went wrong. She didn’t tell her family, but it eventually became so obvious, even her son commented! Her explanation was that the bracelet was given by her family, and the charms were chosen with love, so it was imbued with a special quality. Perhaps that’s a good reason to give a charm bracelet!
By the way, if you’re having trouble choosing between the various charms – it may help to know that I found the ballet shoe pendant was always far more popular than similarly priced ballerina necklaces.