Isabelle (Doll): American Girl "Girl of the Year"

[Helene]

From an email from New York Theatre Ballet, The American Girl "Girl of the Year" was revealed yesterday on "The Today Show," and four students from Ballet School NY, the school of New York Theatre Ballet, were there to help:

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/american-girl-39-2014-doll-revealed-meet-isabelle-133258598--abc-news-parenting.html

According to the ABC News story,

Books based on Isabelle's life will tell the story of 10-year-old Isabelle Palmer, a dancer who is studying ballet at a performing arts school.

Isabelle, who has a flair for designing ballet costumes, has trouble adjusting to a new school, and struggles with self-doubt in the dance studio until she finds a way to stand out and use her talent to help others.

From the NYTB email,

There are special events planned at American Girl Place January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We hope you can stop by and join us for this very special occasion. There will be a demonstration, craft, free giveaway, and of course, dancing! Learn more.

American Girl Place is located at 609 Fifth Avenue and 49th Street.

She's casually dressed. Perhaps the tutus are part of the accessories (as in $110 for the doll + accessories) budget? (Edited to ad: oh, yeah: http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/thumbnail/id/2055/uid/533)

Unfortunately, gender stereotyping is still in force; from the event website (click "Learn more"):

General Information

• Free and open to the public.
• For girls ages 8 and up.

[sandik]

American Girl dolls are an interesting combination of a keepsake toy and an educational toy -- we never bought any of the dolls, but we did read several of the early books, which seemed written along the "improving literature" model (The Little Peppers, Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables, etc in earlier times). The characters have some great qualities, but the price tag makes the dolls less of a companion for adventurous play than an item that teaches young children how to 'collect.'

[Helene]

At $110/pop before accessories it wasn't just a token gift of a doll that each four kids from New York Ballet School received. (Although now I'm wondering what the Chatty Cathy I was given as an eight-year-old would cost in today's dollars...)

[vipa]

Years ago when my kids were little, American Girl Dolls were a product of an individual who sold by mail order only. The dolls and the idea behind them were unique, and although expensive seemed worth the price. At some point the dolls became part of Mattel (I'm sure the original owner got a good deal - bless him or her). The price of the dolls didn't go down even though I'm sure that Mattel's cost of manufacturing has to be a lot less than an individual's would be.

[sandik]

At $110/pop before accessories it wasn't just a token gift of a doll that each four kids from New York Ballet School received. (Although now I'm wondering what the Chatty Cathy I was given as an eight-year-old would cost in today's dollars...)

Chatty Baby here -- and yes, I imagine it was fairly pricey at the time.

[Marga]

My daughter loved American Girl books when she was young before all the hoopla with the dolls and accessories began. She enjoyed acting out stories by learning the lines in the script books about the different dolls (and getting her little brother to learn the boy parts).

Now 28 and a professional dancer, she was overjoyed to be chosen to dance in the American Girl 2014 movie. The dancers rehearsed and filmed in Toronto from May to July and were treated royally by the producers and staff. Their choreographer was a Vaganova teacher (who has her own ballet school) whom my daughter had once taken class with as an 8 year old. All the dancers were excellent - top-notch ballet dancers (the audition notice called for "National Ballet of Canada" caliber dancers).

The dancers were worked very hard (they performed the Nutcracker) and received very good pay. My daughter said that the level of training of the young girls who are the movie's "stars" is very high. NBoC first soloist Tanya Howard was their AD in the film and has a speaking role.

The experience was for my daughter one of the highlights of her life.

[mom2]

What a small world Ballet Alert can be! My dd was also one of the adult dancers in the film. She would also say that it was a great experience - she learned a lot!! - and that the younger dancers were exceptionally talented.