Dance Weekend #1

I survived.  That's about the best statement I can make regarding La Nina's first dance convention of the year.   For her, the weekend included 9 hour long dance classes covering tap, ballet, jazz and hip hop. She also participated in her first audition for a scholarship.  Her audition group contained girls 6-10, so the card were stacked against her and she was immediately eliminated.  A couple of girls also eliminated cried, but not mine.  She was furious the judges didn't see her skills.  Then her team competed and did great for so early in the season.   

For me, the weekend was a bit like spending 8 hours a day for straight two days in a dentists' waiting room in an uncomfortable chair listening to really loud music and small girls shrieking.  Can you say sensory overload?  I recommend the military use dance conventions as opposed to water boarding to coerce confessions from suspected terrorists.  Trust me, for men, a full confession to anything will occur within the first four hours of convention life.  

The best part of convention related activities occurred listening to the convention director give a parent talk.  He was a flamboyant former dancer, choreographer, quite entertaining.  The talk over all was geared more to parents of teenagers, but given I have a child who tells me "She loves, loves, loves dance" after 9 straight hours of it, I figured I better be paying attention, 'cuz you just never know.  Anyway, I chuckled when he gave a piece of advice that could have come from my conservative father in law would whole-heartedly embrace.  

"What ever you do," he said, "Teach your young children, especially your daughters to say their names with great confidence and look grown ups in the eye. It's an important life skill, they need to learn it young."  (Add the firm handshake and I think that's I've heard that same thing over dinner.) 

The other thing I learned this weekend is parents who put their kids in dance for any other reason than the fact their kids love it are crazy.  These weekends are tough.