the big show

Tonight is the girl's first ballet recital. I remember being in their shoes, feeling all jittery in my tummy for fear that I would forget my entire dance, lose a part of my costume, or get lost and not be able to perform. None of those things happened, though I was always a step ahead or behind the rest of the girls throughout the performance. The New York Performing Arts Company was certainly not knocking on my door the next day offering me an audition.

It is amusing that my girls seem nervous for different reasons, Mary is like me and has to be in the back so she can watch the other girls, while Maggie is only afraid that her friend Sierra won't remember the steps. I'm grateful that they both are wearing lovely costumes, some of the hip-hop gear is horrible with the worst costume featuring gold and purple lame and over sized baseball hats. None of the moves we saw at the two dress rehearsals were as bad as the ones in the You-tube video that surfaced last week showing 7 year old girls in bikini tops prancing around like they should be performing in an "gentlemen's club", the kind of club with no windows and advertised by billboards near the Navy base. I didn't want to overburden the children so we are taking the day off from school today to simply play games, paint, and read. Mary has two more shows on Saturday and then ballet class will be over for the year.