Recital recap

All in all, the recital went pretty well. It was sort of a variety show, since there were singers, pianists, and even a mime performing during transitions. Most of the kids cooperated, too, despite the fact that we kept them in the basement (green room) through the entire recital. They were adorable and for some reason kept giving me compliments on my dancing, looks, etc. and saying nice things (even a couple "Will you be my mommy?" questions). I've decided that kids basically reflect your attitudes toward them, because I've noticed that they all stay far away from the other teacher. He is an amazing dancer, but he does not like kids and does not have much patience. (I mean, a girl in one of his dances asked me to teach her a part that she hadn't learned yet, even though he was standing across the room.) On the other hand, I always seem to get at least a few enthusiastic "Hi Julie(s)" and random hugs from different kids all the time. I don't even know many of their names.

I was pretty proud of my class, and I know this sounds cheesy, but I've sort of bonded with them in just the two months that I have been there. They asked me to sit up front and subtly mime the motions because they were nervous, but they only looked at me to flash a smile when they correctly did a move that they were struggling with. It was so cute that we had that connection during the dance, and I think that happened at least once with all of them.

Two of the dances I was in went okay, but the teachers' dance was seriously a disaster. I would have been fine with leaving it out completely, since we finished it a few hours before we performed it and we knew we weren't ready. Not to mention, I waited for 3 hours in The Loop (nearby) on Friday for a practice that ended up being canceled! There are two other teachers, and while the guy in the middle could look okay free-styling, the owner and I (standing on the outside of him) were supposed to be in sync. She said we should watch each other. Well, it's pretty hard to watch and follow someone in real time, so when she started doing something different than what we practiced, I tried to keep up. She wasn't following me, so I had to try to follow her. The second half of the dance was a mess, but I think it would have been even worse if the owner and I were doing completely different things. Unbelievable. I am a hypocrite, too, because I kept telling the kids to smile and after a certain point I could not even fake it. I was pretty disgusted, because I was willing to work on it and the other two...weren't as motivated about practicing. That's exactly what happens, kids, let that be a lesson.

I really have a hard time working with people that aren't organized in these situations. The owner has no sense of time. On top of the practices that either ran over, started late, or didn't even end up happening, our 2 hour "dress rehearsal" turned into 3 hours of dancing in what ended up being a random order. We didn't even get to a few of the dances. I was pretty nervous about how that would play out in the recital, so I ended up running up and down the stairs most of the time, making sure the next group of kids were dressed and ready. It was a lot of work, but I guess I would do it again...as long as it's just once a year. Thank God it's over and I have more time...theoretically. In reality? I'd give it at least a couple of weeks. :)