Dance Competition #2

This was a very looooooong day.  We needed to leave the house at 8:00 in the morning with the girls completely ready for their first dance.  Their team was scheduled as the third dance of the morning.  Obviously the studio builds in a bit of a cushion but when they say your call time is 8:30, you need to be there, 100% ready to go at 8:30.  If people show up late, they may decide for the next competition to move up the call time to account for lateness.  I did not want to be the person responsible for an earlier call time so I rolled out of bed at 6:00.  If you know me, you know this is torture.

But we arrived on time and ready to go!



The girls' team danced to Jingle Bells.  So here's the deal with photos - we're not allowed to take any of the performances.  (If you know me, you know this is torture.)  No video either and they scare you with the threat of lost points if anyone is caught taking photos/videos.  They say it's for the safety of the students but they have a professional photographer and videographer there.  And their prices are not cheap.  You do have to give the name of the dance studio (this is anonymous when they are dancing) and provide the name of one of the dancers in order to prevent random people from purchasing photos or video.  So, yes, there is some security there.  A whole bunch of us dance parents went in together to split the cost and we bought the full set of photos.  
 










There was an awards ceremony after all the morning performances.  The girls' team earned a high gold ranking and they all seemed pretty happy with that.  It was their first time competing with that dance.

And then it was time to get ready for their big candy dance, which is a compilation of candy-themed songs. This one includes all three dance teams from the studio.











There was another awards ceremony in the late afternoon.  The candy dance scored an ABSOLUTE which earns the team a spot at Nationals over the summer.  It also received a special judge's award.



It was well into dinnertime by the time the competition ended so we made plans to stop and eat with friends on the way home.  I can't remember exactly when Anna began complaining of a headache but she was somewhat miserable during dinner.  With all the running around, I knew she hadn't been taking in enough water nor had she eaten enough.  There was a very small window in which to eat lunch so Rich had made us all sandwiches that morning.  We also had some snacks packed.

I don't think Anna had anything to eat between noon and 6:00-something that night.  We arrived home and she crashed hard.  So now Rich and I have to become experts on shunt malfunctions.  She's showing signs of a shunt malfunction but we need to reason it out.  We know she probably didn't drink enough water, we know she went too long between eating, we know she's exhausted.  I was fully expecting her to have to stay home from school the next day to recover but she came into my room the next morning and when I asked her how she was feeling, she said, "I'm fine."  And she was.

So it was a long but fun and successful day!  I actually don't mind dance competitions.  I like to see the other teams from our studio perform, and also the competition.  Although, at times I do feel like I'm an extra on the set of a movie or something.  Think Little Miss Sunshine.