56. Blue Ivy is growing up and showing out

My love for dance runs deep, and I incorporate dance into my life whenever I can. The Australian dance scene stays relatively relevant in my life thanks to my talented younger brother, Xavier, who’s pursuing a creative career (and together we’re the white, Temu version of Jaden and Willow Smith).  

I’m not exaggerating when I say Blue Ivy dancing on the Cowboy Carter tour has taken up 85% of my TikTok feed over the past week. I never skip a video when it comes up, which will promptly present me with another angle of the same video. And I don’t care. It’s simply overtaking my mind, so I must speak about it immediately.

With her iconic backlog of music and frankly insane work ethic, Beyoncé has more than earned the world stage she is on, both metaphorically and physically. From the public eye to sold-out arena and stadium tours, Beyoncé’s star power and talent are in their own category.

When her eldest daughter joined her on the Renaissance Tour stage over the past couple of years, there was criticism about bringing her child into an environment like that, prone to all the eyes and social commentary.

But seeing videos on Blue Ivy’s progression as a performer has me thinking she’s fine with the arrangement. Blue is running that stage like her mother does each night, nailing choreography and demanding attention. With a face card like that, and dance moves erring on the raunchy side of things, Blue’s costuming strikes the perfect balance of flaunting and modesty.

I understand it’s convenient to compare the Knowles-Carter family affair to a Dance Moms parallel. But come on, these are girls younger than Blue Ivy, competing week in, week out on the world stage, brought to you by the harsh world of reality TV. Blessings to all those girls: Jojo got some working out to do, and Maddie can never say the work pyramid again without getting flashbacks.

There’s a whole other conversation to be had about nepo-babies, another time on this blog with regard to career building and the sheer privilege their surname awards them. But in this case, Blue is out here working hard at rehearsals, keeping Rumi in check (controlling eldest daughters unite), and Manager Blue is out here keeping her mum in check too. If nothing else, I’ll keep enjoying the memes and telling everyone at work that I’ve seen the videos so much I could get up and do the dance right now if I only had the music.