Born to Dance.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance. ~Anon

Last night; last night was the dance performance.  Yes, the Star does dance.  I've never been sure about this one.  OK, like a lot of musical kids the child has an intrinsic sense of rhythm.  I'm not sure that's enough to counterbalance her absolute refusal to count.  Dance is all about counting.  It may look beautiful but inside of every single body doing points & arabesques the internal metronome is going:one & two & three & four; five & six & seven & eight....

And having watched the tail end of one or two rehearsals I was groaning inwardly because these kids all need a trip to the ballet to see the real thing.  Then they might realise drooping languidly like wilting flowers is so not the go!  The Star & I discussed all this while she was doing the Camelot thing with Qld Ballet.  I raphodised over the nice clean lines, crisp movements, nice definitions ~ which is what gives ballet its beauty.  Star knows what I mean but to date she hasn't done a lot of dance because ~ well it was another thing I had to juggle & every time we started we lost the teacher.  If we had to go off island I wasn't interested.

So this year Star has done dance. She is a big girl: tall, junoesque ~ a bit of a Brunhilda.  No, I'm not putting the child down.  I'm just saying she's not the flower~like fairy child who looks like a breath will waft her away.  She's not quite the tallest but she is certainly the most solid & there is nothing beautiful about her ballet.  Lucky for Star, who is not all that interested in ballet per se, they do a variety of dance: jazz, hip~hop, Latino, things like the Charleston.  Lots of the kids also do some gymnastics/aerobics as well so the program was a bit of a combination of things.

I know Star has struggled.  Performance hardened, her teacher quickly cottoned on to the fact that whatever was asked of Star she would do.  It is bizarre but it is professional training. So Star was up there doing the same routines as the kids who have been doing this stuff for years & years.  Star, who is not a rote learner but needed to learn this by rote. 

I was expecting the worst but in fact the kids put on a great performance.  I enjoyed it.  Still, watching Star, I was rather rolling my eyes because every so often she went off the air.  It is unmistakable.  She goes all over the place, looses her rythmn, her spot in the sequencing BUT, never once did her big cheesy grin falter.  Not once did she look like she'd rather be anywhere else doing anything else than what she was doing; putting on a most extraordinary performance!  Interpret that how you will!

During interval one of the teachers up at the school came across to chat with me.  We know him rather well.  I used to work with him & we played soccer with him.  He's math oriented. How do we always end up with the math geeks?  And he was shaking his head as he said ~ & he knows Star; he knows Star's math & once said of it ~ it doesn't matter; she can sing! I know! So he's shaking his head & goes, Star's born to perform, isn't she?  It seems she is. 

One more & I think we're done for the year.