Tiny Dancer

On Saturday, June 20th, Lauren's dance studio held their annual show. The show began at 1:30 p.m., but performers were required to be there an hour ahead of time to go backstage and sit with the teachers and other students. Significantly, no parents were allowed to stay with their children backstage. This was of some concern for many of the parents in Lauren's class because all of the kids are 2 and 3 years old. Not only do some of the girls not want to be without their moms, but the time of the show meant these toddlers would certainly be missing naps (which most still take). To make matters even worse, upon arrival, parents learned that Lauren's dance number was 39th out of 40 (plus an intermission in between). That meant her class would be sitting in the holding room for 3 friggin hours before performing. Must have taken a rocket scientist to think that was a great idea. I learned about it the afternoon before (having thought to call ahead for the schedule), so did not even bring Lauren to the show until an hour after the call time. Still, the wait was interminable (no offense to any of the other very sweet performances leading up to hers). Finally, the McCavity number from the musical Cats came on, and Lauren, along with 11 other girls were lead out with their teacher Miss Michaela. By that point, these babes were clearly exhausted. Add to that the fact that the theater was super pitch black while they were ushered onto center stage, and you had the perfect setting for, what else, chaos. I don't know about you, but hearing whimpering and terrified crying, plus cries of "Mommy!" before the number even started wasn't exactly what I think anyone sitting in that freezer of a theater paid $20 for. At least we could rest assured that Lauren wasn't one of the criers (she's tough, like her mom).

The girls looked cute as can be (I would hope so, those costumes set us each back 65!). That's pretty much all that can be said, because there certainly wasn't any "performing" going on during their number. Well, we did spy Lauren making a funny face on cue like she was supposed to, but for the most part what you had were a dozen deer in headlight faces alternating between staring into the pitch black massive audience and squinting at Miss Michaela in the wings frantically waving her arms so they could follow her moves.

Of course after the show, Lauren was beaming and we told her how amazingly good she was. Nanny Kristen gave her a rose, and Nana and Pop Pop Mark gave her a stuffed dog.

The princess getting ready for the performance (that bun brought back memories of my synchro days):


Rehearsing at home in the mirror (hey, where was that move during the show?):


An ebullient post-show move:


With Leontine, one of her fellow kitties:


A post-show celebration ensued at Wahoo's with Nanny Kristen:


Lauren clearly had a blast and that's what truly matters, so all's well that ends well. And we've officially been indoctrinated into dance recital culture. The show must go on . . . . . . . .