Dance Dance Revolution

I attended my kids' first ever dance recital this afternoon.  I wasn't sure what to expect since I am no dancer.  I am fairly proud of the fact that I pretty much have no moves whatsoever.  After my mission, I tried to take a ballroom dance class at college.  I remember that the "professor" (really some guy on the college ballroom dance team) asked us to write on a little cue card something that made us unique.  I wrote: "I know that I have rhythm because it takes rhythm to dunk a basketball."

I stand by that statement today.  (Have you ever seen someone who is uncoordinated ever be able to dunk?)  However, after my appendix ruptured, I had to spend 10 days in the hospital.  My "professor" told me that I had to spend 2 hours in the dance "lab" for every hour of class that I had missed.  I withdrew from the class immediately and remain stubbornly proud of that "W" on my transcript that is still there to this day.

My Little Princess/Cinderella Getting Ready for the Ball...

E. was so excited for the recital that she got herself dressed and ready.  J. helped her by spending what seemed like hours doing E.'s hair.  E. loved to tell me that she was doing her hair "fancy."  I asked E. if I could do my hair "fancy" too.  She told me no because I wasn't a girl.

Every Princess needs a teddy bear...

The traffic down to the recital as brutal.  It turned what should have been a 30 minute drive into a 70 minute drive.  I have no idea why all those people felt like they should have been on the road.  For a little bit, I worried whether we would make it before the curtain lifted on the show!

Once we got there, J. took E. backstage and I ended up getting a text from J. saying that E. was feeling nervous and might not take the stage.  E.'s number was #8 on the program (out of 29), so we didn't have to wait long.  I had been saying silent prayers in my heart that E. would make it out on stage.

Finally, Performance #8 was due.  The lights went dark and then came up to see a line of little princess dancers.  I quickly scanned them searching for E.  This is what I saw:

One of these dancers is not like the others...

Yes, that is E. on the far right.  No, she did not make it onstage.  I videotaped the whole performance and this is the still frame documenting the exact moment that she was closest to being on stage.  Here's an excerpt from the text that J. sent me to describe what E. was feeling at that moment:

"[E.] was shaking with fear.  Her heart beat was racing.  It was so sad..."

Later, the dance director would proudly inform us that in 25 years of teaching dance she's never had a little girl not make it on stage.  Until tonight that is.  Awesome!  I felt like asking her for a refund!  ;-)

Curiously, E. did not appear to have much stage fright once the lights were on!

I hope that next time it won't be as traumatic for E.  Somewhere, J. has rehearsal footage of E. and J. told me that E. did a really good job.  I believe it!

R.'s Turn:

Practice makes perfect...

R. had number 28 out of 29 on the program.  He looked great, but I was a little bummed because he was on the far side of the stage and also seemed to be kinda stuck in back.  Here's a little clip that I managed to bootleg out of the performance (after I videotaped E.'s performance, the announcer took the PA to "remind" us that we weren't allowed to video the dances--no doubt to make us purchase the DVD later on.  I felt it was unfair for reminding me not to video a performance that my daughter wasn't in--obviously I wasn't going to buy that one later anyway!).

R. is on the far right, but don't fret...I managed to capture this short snippet from his dress rehearsal the night before:

I don't know anything about dance, but I think R.'s moves look great.  And I'm impressed that he's been so enthusiastic about practicing and getting ready.  I take no credit for his success--J. is the real, talented dancer in the family so I'm glad that some of those genes rubbed off on our kids!

Good job R!  I'm really proud of how well you did during the recital today.

I love you two!  And E., next time I promise to remember a bouquet of flowers for you!

*******UPDATE*******
I have it on good authority that if E. had made it onstage, it would have looked something like this: