So, the girls finally decided they wanted to take dance lessons. This fall we signed Annika up for ballet (her decision) and Lauren wanted to do tap, so she signed up for tap.
It was a loooooonnnnngg year!
Annika did not like rushing from school to dance. I had to pick them up from school every Tues. and rush to their lessons while they ate their snack (which was never enough) in the car, then they had to quickly change in the bathroom and Annika would dash off to her lesson. We had 30 minutes from school getting out to class starting. While that sounds doable enough - it was tough.
Lauren, however, had an extra half hour to get ready and kill while Annika was in her class. Luckily they were back to back classes ... actually designed that way so the students could take both ballet and tap. Anyway, I made Lauren do her daily spelling while she waited. She fought me on that tooth and nail.
So, dance was always frustrating for me!
Then comes the recital. Guess what - rules galore! Turns out the girls are supposed to conform to a "dress code" and all look alike. OK - now mom has some issues!! You guessed it - I was one of the complaining moms. Oh well. The girls were supposed to wear makeup! 5yr olds were strongly encouraged to wear lipstick, blush, foundation, eyeliner & mascara!! I let the girls choose what they wanted to wear - but no mascara or foundation. I was going to go sans makeup, but I felt a bit hypocritical after Lauren wore makeup for the entire play weekend with no gripes from me. So they wore some. Turns out Annika LOVED wearing make up. The itchy costume - not so much. (personally, I hated her costume - itches or none)
The worst part of this whole deal? The recital was 3 hours long! So, Friday and Saturday the girls spent 3.5 hours in an itchy costume cooped up with little to do. (the extra half hour was because they had to be in costume ready to go half hour before the recital started.) Annika went on stage 2.5 hours into the recital, and Lauren was the 2nd to last group to go on stage.
It gets even better (bear with me, this was torture!) Friday night the recital started at 7pm. Do the fricken math and you'll see that they were dancing around 9:30-10pm!! Bed time is 8pm for them. Can you say CRANKY KIDS??
So, the good part? They were really cute! Some of the dances were too cute/funny. A few of the older kids did fairly well. But really, it was the little kids that stole the show. I'm glad they did it, but I'm even more glad it is over.
However, as I was privately rejoicing as the last kid ran off the stage, Lauren turns to me ans says she wants to do Ballet next year. ugggg
1 comment:
There's a good side to this, I'm telling you! I was in dance recitals from the time I was 3 until the age of 17 plus dance shows at the fair grounds every summer for 3 weeks straight (every day) I got SO sick of wearing make-up when I was forced to that I never chose to wear any during everyday life as a teen or even now. Maybe they'll feel the same way and you won't have to go through that "clown" stage! I will say that the ballet outfit is VERY non-traditional. LOL =)
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