Dance your heart out

This past fall, the girls' dance studio announced it would be holding a choreography showcase, where students would be presenting dances they choreographed all on their own.  This would have been an absolute dream come true for my 11, 12, 13, 14 year old self, and even better, the girls were beyond excited when I told them about it.  When I turned in their registration forms, I told the studio owner they were signed up before she had even announced it.

Have I told you how I was a cheerleader in high school for the school's football team?  It was not something I'd ever thought of doing and it sort of just happened.  At the end of eighth grade, high school students visited our homeroom to let us know of different clubs and sports we could join (or try out) for the upcoming year.  There was a group of cheerleaders and they talked about how much fun we would have if we joined the cheerleading squad.  A group of girls I was friendly with in my homeroom expressed an interest and asked if I wanted to join them.  I excitedly said yes because that was the closest thing to dance I could easily participate in and aside from the mandatory white Reebok sneakers, the cost to my parents would be minimal.

(By the way, I have a friend from Texas who was a cheerleader growing up and our stories could not be any more different.  I was recruited because with the graduating seniors leaving, there were barely enough girls for a team.  The five of us who "tried out" all made it.  I don't know if it's changed but Texas cheerleading was super competitive back in the '80s.)

So back to whole dance/cheerleading thing.  You can imagine how excited I was when I found out that the cheerleaders would be choreographing a dance to use for the school's pep rally.  That excitement quickly faded when all the older girls threw in their song choices.  I can still remember standing in the hot parking lot listening to some hair band song being played on a cassette deck in a senior's car.  None of the songs were ones I would ever choose for a dance, but I was a lowly freshman and my opinion held very little weight.  We ended up dancing to Prince's Let's Go Crazy and 30+ years later, I still remember that song in a way I normally would not.  And I still remember the beginning of our dance.  I feel like we danced to Let's Hear It for the Boy one year but my memory of that is very fuzzy.

Now back to the girls.  Imagine being able to pick your own song, choreograph the dance all on your own and create your own costume!!  A couple of girls asked Allie if she wanted to dance with them and she politely declined.  She wanted absolute complete creative control over the entire process.  Emily and her BFF were in together and Anna wanted to dance on her own because if she forgot the dance and made it up on the spot, no one would know.  And that's very true.

I have been asked if the kids truly choreographed their dances all on their own or if they received some help.  They each had a mentoring session with someone from the studio.  The girls' mentor was a younger teacher, who is super talented and nice and awesome.  We just love her.  She watched their dances and provided comments on certain aspects they may want to think about, or not if they were completely happy with what they had.  For example, Emily and Sophie danced a duet but they never looked or touched each other and that was her comment to them.  She didn't tell them what to do to change it or that they even had to change it, but they did decide to make a couple of revisions based on her comment.  Anna had a tap dance which wasn't finished at the time of the mentoring session and her advice to Anna was to think of four tap steps and if she got stuck, to have those moves as back-up.

Think of how nerve-wracking it is to dance in front of a room full of people, never mind presenting a dance you've choreographed all on your own.  All of the kids were amazing!



(Photo editing tip:  If the background colors are blah and take away from the photo, change it to black and white.)







Okay, so there are no photos of Anna because she asked me to not take any when she was dancing.  She choreographed her dance four days before the showcase.  Four.  Days.  And it was a tap dance.  I was so nervous for her that I almost got up and watched from the very back of the room.  She rocked it though and no one believes me when I tell them she pulled it together in four days.

A couple of days after the showcase, Allie and Emily both participated in their school's talent show.  They danced, obviously, but instead of using the dances they had already choreographed, they choreographed new dances because why not?





No fear!