-->
Saturday was the annual ballet recital for my daughter, Miss Wiggles, and her friends that signifies the start of summer for me in many ways with the biggest being that the school year ends less than a week later. Like every year since my daughter was four years-old it has been my duty on Tuesdays to rush her from daycare to ballet and tap dancing practice. The recitals are always sort of sad for me since they provide a clear marker for how much she was grown over the year.
As far as fatherly duties go, its not that bad as long as I could quickly leave the dance studio after dropping her off. If I have to stay, I will be the only dad in a sea of moms who broadcast uncomfortable vibes at me because of my presence which bounce off the walls like thunderous sound waves.
A few times over the last year, if I didn’t get out fast enough and to the nearby library it was possible for me to overhear some aspect of female conversation that guys just do not ever need to know about. Moreover, if I have to stay for some reason I can tell I stifle the resulting conversation, which was almost as bad resulting in the bad vibes. Anyway, that is thankfully behind me for another year. I would let Dragonwife take her but she prefers to take our son to piano practice which is at the same time.
This year an old college friend of Dragonwife’s and her boyfriend, down for a visit, joined us for the recital and I am thankfully we arrived as early as we did because it was soon standing room only for the first half of the performance. I couldn't imagine forcing Dragonwife's friends to go through the recital having to stand up. They have been together for several years but do not have any kids and I could tell they felt more than a little alien around all the other parents and kids. At least sitting down they seemed a little more comfortable and out of the way.
Before the performances started I saw the usual collection of suburban drones complete with desperate housewives scoping out both what the other women were wearing and any guys that looked single. The gossip among these ladies flew at supersonic speeds with Dragonwife in the middle of some of it. It was also easy to see frustrated dads on various smart phones and blackberries tapping out what must have been important messages. When the curtain finally went up and the lights dimmed a welcomed hush sweep over everyone.
The second half brought the ballet portion of the recital and a little more breathing room in the auditorium since many people hauled ass if their child had no other presentation. Before anyone gets any ideas I realize that my cinematography skills hover somewhere in the negative realm but since I was sitting inside a crowded auditorium using an old digital camera with a rinky-dink video function that in all honesty barely works I feel pretty good with what I recorded. The first little girl you see is not my daughter but since at the start of the routine she is still behind the curtain I focused on who was on the stage. My daughter will be the one in purple outfit trying to keep up with the bigger girls. Miss Wiggles and the other girls had a great time and are looking forward to the start of a new year of dancing in the fall. I am too as long as I can continue to flee the scene after dropping her off.
17 comments:
A flying visit to say hi and this post reminds me of my own children when they were young.
Oh your little Miss Wiggles is doing great I loved it.
I was never part of the women gossip circle but I always did love dancing and certainly ballet
One of the boys in the childrens home did ballet and I always visited the performances. He was
great but a boy doing ballet wasn't good for his reputations among the boys so he stopped, although he had very pretty ballet friends. Anyway what ashame. I am happy that your girl enjoyes this beautiful dance Hope she keeps it up
Awwww!!!!!
She is simply adorable. Tell her that Laura said she did great and that I think she was THE BEST in the whole group! Certainly the prettiest! :)
I don't do well in "group gossip". I'm better one on one gossiping. :P
I don't usually insert myself into groups. I have "My people" and that's about it. Hmmm.. I suppose that is kind of a group.. right!? :P
At soccer I try to keep my distance and aside from one Dad that I flirt with at Gabby's gymnastics, I don't talk much with anyone.
Thanks so much for sharing the video! I loved it. :)
((Hugs))
Laura
Tears from memories of mine. With those graceful long arms and legs Miss Wiggles should go far. She really is lovely.
These kids are making wonderful progress; the footwork, the arm movements, the coordination, the choreography, everything.....And, yeah, what do you say we give that guy from behind the camera a nice round of applause, too, ladies and gentlemen.
Middle Ditch: We ordered the professionally made DVD of the recital so we could remember it.
Marja: This post is a mess because I meant to write about one little boy who refused to go out on stage during his part of the recital. they tried to drag him out once or twice but he fought them tooth and nail. That left two little girls on stage, dressed as baby chicks, who wenton without him.
Sunshine: I don't like making anyone uncomfortable so I get out quickly. Plus, I wrote about that conversation I overheard several months and do not want to repeat it.
Truth be told I'm real bad on the suburban small talk stuff but Dragonwife can really mix it up.
Tnlib: Thanks, she really enjoys it and is far more a social animal on par with her mom than I. Being that we live in a blood red section of an already red state I keep expecting some issue with my daughter being Chinese but everyone seems to love her.
Will: Thanks, Wiggles was very happy with what she did but did come away saying that she knew what kind of mistakes she made during the performance. I'm just a dumb country boy and thought she was perfect.
I deleted a humanist lament about a gender divide that has led to Sarah Palin's current status because it seemed ultimately irrelevant. I absolutely do wish that people would be more welcoming and inclusive with each other instead of cliquish and exclusive - but we all wish a lot of things.
Right now, I'll just wish you and your kids a happy summer.
PENolan: It maybe the Southerner in me but I really don't mind getting away from the moms and their female discussions. I readily enjoy as much quiet time as I can get at the library since like my son before her my daughter makes browsing around the book shelves very hard.
Plus, the political leanings of those moms are very much favor of Palin and I already feel about as alien in this town as I can get and not have a starship in my backyard.
Have you thought about actually building a spaceship, one with lasers? That way, you can go around zapping all these yokels and everyone will assume that it's ET.
Randal: That would be so cool for reasons I have written about many times but given the nature of the people around here they would say it was a supernatural event instead of extraterrestrial.
i miss the recital days too. but even though i am a mom, i don't miss the other moms. *shudders
such a sweet performance.
Lime: LOL!!!! Like I said before in so many ways I'm a stranger in a strange land already, throwing in the fact of my male presence around a bunch of suburban moms just makes it worse.
aaahhhhh....Ms. wiggles did a beautiful job of graceful ballet dancing...I liked the song by Michael Jackson..it was beautiful too.
I too took ballet lessons at our neighbors house across the street when I was a young girl. The neighbor was a ballet dancer for a ballet group in Hollywood when a young adult. I grew up in the San Fernando valley, Los Angeles county..but was born in Huntington WV! Our ballet teacher taught us a lot..."now be very graceful girls, graceful makes it beautiful". My sisters and I were also sent to a Modeling school class when teenagers and we loved that..then we had to do modeling of the Fashion clothes from the stores at the mall up on this big stage.! Scary!
I wonder why your wife preferred to take the son to the piano lessons, rather than take her daughter to the ballet classes? it might have been a bit easier for you to tolerate and not have to deal with the "desperate housewives" playing their little grown up games that they do play.
Congrat Ms. Wiggles for me on a beautiful performance.
Rhi
Rhia: You wrote: I wonder why your wife preferred to take the son to the piano lessons...
Mainly because when I took him I had us in and out very quickly. I have no ear from piano and when my wife asks how he did I say fine. Unfortunately, my son has displayed several times back home that the performance I though was good at the teacher's house was really crappy.
Plus, the teacher is a raging conservative that I overheard talking shit about the First Lady and I really do not like to be around her.
I understand where you are coming from BB. I don't think I could have taken people talking bad things about the first lady either. Maybe if the Obama's were green, or red, white or blue some people might be more comfortable and happy...what a shame how the color of ones skin can bring such fear and meanness to people.
This country really needs to grow up and stop living in the "past".
Just wanted to let you know I know what you mean...I had to deal with stuff like that when living in Virginia, South and North Carolina and Florida also...what a shame hey?
Rhia: I really don't think most people can get a handle on the ignorance I see and hear on a daily basis in the area I live. What upset me the most is that while I understood the piano teacher is a repub, the venom she spewed about the First Lady was nearly psychotic.
Post a Comment