So You Think You Can Dance

Our right brained child took dance lessons this summer.   She has not had a dance lesson since she was a preschooler and she was to be among the youngest in this class, so I feared she would not be ready.  I was never very flexible or coordinated at her age, so my memories of dance lessons as a child are of feeling embarrassed and awkward.  When it comes to line-dancing, however, I will get out there and groove no matter how silly I may look.

Knowing that a mom should never project her own childhood anxieties onto her own child, I kept my concerns to myself, and wow, did she ever surprise me.  When I would watch her through the windows from the lobby area, tears poured down my cheeks. Not only could she keep up with the older girls who had been dancing for years, but she looked simply lovely out there, moving with poise and grace.  This same girl bumps into something, trips, or hurts herself in some way nearly every day... just like her mama.  How did she learn to dance so gracefully in such a short period of time?   As her mother, I know I'm biased, but she really did surprise me.

The theme for the summer dance camp was "So You Think You Can Dance." At each lesson, the students would watch a clip from the TV show, and then learn how to dance in the particular style shown on TV.  At the end of camp, they gave a mini recital with each dancer performing a snippet of tap, ballet, jazz, and hip hop.

After the camp ended, she asked if we could move to a neighboring city to be closer to this dance studio.  We just discovered at orientation last week that a dance company is located right next door to her new school.  She may soon be asking us for lessons every school day.  Because dancing is so expensive (especially at recital time), time consuming, and may involve skimpy outfits or suggestive movements (although there are studios in the area that make modesty a priority), I had hoped dancing would not be her favorite activity.  Horseback riding and Upward basketball are still high on her list, but dancing may be moving up to first place.