1st Dance Recital
To dance or not to dance.
A year of Saturdays practicing, countless dollars spent on practices, costumes, shoes and tights, a year of mommy and daddy fighting over the value of spending dollars on practices, costumes, shoes and tights. And then the recital…
Our little girl who was destined to be a dancer was excited every Saturday morning. She was one of the most focused in her 4-5 year old class. She practiced and had fun. Maybe had more fun than practiced, but I was ok with that. Unlike many of her peers she actually wanted to be there – I felt a sense of pride knowing that the money we were spending was for a good thing. We weren’t one of those parents trying to make their daughter want to dance, she really did want to and she was having fun.
But then the recital came. Down at TPAC center, no small auditorium for this group, they went all out. Complete with dressing rooms, and seats with tickets (which we had to pay for) and a big stage with a lighting system that scared the begeezes out of my little girl she was going to get a taste of the big time. The problem with the big time, was that it was a little too big. She was terrified. She didn’t freeze, but she absolutely refused to talk about the performance until about a week after. Even when I mentioned getting together with her little friend to put on their costumes for “fun” she said that would not be fun and the costumes weren’t that pretty.
So, what to do now? This activity that we heard was good for building self esteem has taken a bad turn. Now that we get the drill and know what to expect both financially and emotionally, I’m wondering if we should repeat. I worry about her quitting and I worry about her staying in. I guess we’ll wait and see if she wants to talk about it more as summer goes on.
