July 20, 2007
Thank goodness that is over.
The Girlie’s annual dance recital was this week, and I am really glad that we are done with it.
This year’s was pretty darn good. Usually your brain can just leak out of your ears a little bit at these things. They’re definitely cute, with all the two and three-year-olds up there in really cute costumes, but really, how many times can you sit through that without wanting to rip out your hair?
Well, this year, I got to sit through every single one of them.
I knew that it was going to be a huge time (and financial) committment when The Girlie got onto the Dance Company. What I failed to realize, until about May or June of this year, was that those committments would bleed into recital itself. Due to the particular dance classes she was in, she performed twice in each of the four shows that were put on this year.
Also, because of the way the classes fell, we didn’t have to go to every rehearsal, but we had to go to the first one each day, which were on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Then performances were on Wednesday and yesterday. So, we’ve been at the local high school (they have a fantastic theatre) every day this week. Six hours on Wednesday and yesterday.
And it wasn’t just me, obviously. All of the other company girls had to be here both nights, both shows. The company is divided into Apprentice, Juniors and Seniors, and all three groups perform one big number, which they performed near the end of every show of recital.
The recital was “America the Beautiful” and the big Company number was to “Conga” from the Miami Sound Machine; so Company got to represent Miami in a big way.
And you know, normally, I’m not a big ole “Rah, Rah, go America!” patriotic person. I acknolwedge that we live in one of the greatest countries on Earth and I am grateful to have been born here; but there are definite faults with our government and the way things are run, so I can’t ever go too overboard on the “America is the best! If you don’t love it, leave it!” front. So, I was sort of dreading this recital. Thinking it would be some over-the-top, patriotic, kids singing “God Bless America” sort of thing.
But it really wasn’t. It was more like a tour through the country. They hit only a fraction of the states (Hawaii, Alaska, California, Nevada, Texas, Indiana, Florida and New York) and then performed songs from each state, such as “Rock-a-Hula Baby”, Ice Dance (from Edward Scissorhands - which, I thought was very cool for them to use!), California Girls, Lucky Girl, Indiana, Conga and Girls of NYC to name a few.
The closest thing to over-the-top patriotism was in Texas, where that included a Garth Brooks medley. (This, of course, is the dance that The Girlie was in.)
Three classes were dressed in Red, White and Blue and they performed The River, Standing Outside the Fire and We Shall Be Free in succession. It was actually extremely beautiful and very well done. A little chaotic at times, with so many dancers on stage, but really gorgeous in parts (a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old from Company doing a Pointe dance!), but just bordering on this side of over-the-top patriotism.
I actually kept The Girlie home from Summer Camp on Tuesday and Wednesday because over the weekend she was getting a little lethargic and sniffly and then on Monday she actually felt fevery (I was afraid to actually take her temperature). So, I kept her home two days, so that she could stay cool and rest and get over whatever little bug she had before the performances. And I am glad I did because she was wiped by the end of the night on Wednesday. Last night, she had some sort of second wind thing and was able to stay up long enough to get all of the hairspray, gel and glitter washed out of her hair.
She was extremely wiped out this morning, even with getting to sleep in, but by the time I was leaving for work (later than normal, because I needed to sleep in a little more, as well), she was snuggly and waking up fully and seemed to be in a good mood.
I am a little worried about her day at Summer Camp, because they are going on a field trip and I don’t want her to get wiped out again, but she has been missing her friends, so I am sure it will be fine and you know, the weekend is here.
We’re going to start our weekend with manicures and pedicures tonight (a reward for her, because she stopped biting her nails!!! and as a reward for her hard work on the recital) and then tomorrow we have a trip out of town for a “Big Surprise” for her (The Fray concert.) But nothing as taxing as what we’ve been doing and I think we’re both grateful for that.
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I am actually a little apprehensive about how I will handle all of this, once the baby is born.
Also, talk about apprehension! Let me say, for the record right now, that I do not know how to raise a Country music fan. I was worried when not once, not twice but during THREE of the shows this week, The Jelly got active during the Garth Brooks medley. I am choosing to believe that it was because she just instinctively knew that her big sister was dancing.
That’s my theory, anyway, and I’m sticking to it.