why dance competitions are so freaking long


Parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends, Romans and countrymen…okay maybe not Romans…but the rest of you, you know how when we are all gathered at pretty much any and every event in the life of our children where they aren’t the only children there like concerts, awards ceremonies, games, graduations, competitions and other stuff where the emcee has to stop every once in a while to remind us all of the rules of the event…the rules that apply to us all at the event. Have you ever thought how much time is wasted when the emcee needs to stop and remind us more than twice, three times, four times..six times…in an hour…of every hour…of every day of the event you are attending?

Have you?

Well I did this weekend, at the event that started Friday afternoon and lasted until Sunday night.

People, THIS is why the emcee at the dance competition we attended Friday afternoon and evening, all day Saturday and all day Sunday had to stop to remind us at the very least four times every hour…in very clear, concise, simple language. At dance competitions like these, public events with our children performing copyrighted choreography on stage it is very clearly prohibited for anyone in the audience to video record a dance…with our children on stage. But that rule must apply to everyone but ME says pretty much every parent, grandparent, auntie, uncle, random stranger who might wander into an open, free, public event.

Ew, to the thought of some random stranger wandering in to a dance competition and taking pictures or recording young dancers on stage!

Ewww!!!

So this is why there is this rule prohibiting photographing or video recording the children on stage and YES it applies to everyone which is why they had to keep stopping…to remind all of us parents, especially the self important ones who were certain that they could not possibly mean THEM, or their iPhone and who were genuinely irritated when kids, my kid actually blocked their view and even more irritated when a staff member of the Rainbow Dance Competition came up to her and told her to stop recording or her kid’s dance would be disqualified.

Yeah, I was clapping. Because self-entitled dance mom you so deserved it.

Seriously, lady, just put down the 12 bucks and buy the damn dvd of your kid’s dance! You want have some person’s shrill voice shouting “You’re actually going to ignore the rules and video record this, aren’t you? Well, aren’t you special!“  and you won’t have people walking into and out of the shot blocking your little darling as she pirouettes across the stage. It is quite good. Note the previous blog post.

patient…fine…balanced…kind


Another weekend, another dance competition.

:::back of hand dramatically to forehead:::

Oh the life of a Dance Mom!

It can be hard sometimes. Like when the competition is being staged this weekend at UC Davis while three of the colleges here are also staging their commencement ceremonies. There is traffic, crowded hotels and at least one hotel manager who seemed to be super annoyed with the arrival of guests who want to check in and prepare for graduation ceremonies and dance competitions.

Putting on stage makeup in the hotel lobby because your room will not be ready for another couple hours, around the time you have to be at the competition ready to take the stage, is just one more thing that will annoy the hotel manager.

Whatever!

You do what you have to do and you don’t let it break your concentration.

Not at all.

And the reward for being patient and fine and balanced and kind is a platinum for your solo and a platinum for your tap duo.

How cool is that?!

Oh and this picture, that smile of my darling dancing daughter’s…I am so glad for all the orthodonture we paid for over the years for her because that smile is perfect.

Congratulations Jodie. Two dances down, four more, plus Hazel’s, to go. You’re off to a great start.

 

 

her routine


Preparing for Hazel’s first dance competition was a bit of a struggle. Okay, fine! It was a big struggle. I mean have YOU ever put false eyelashes and rhinestones on a four year old?

There were tears. She quit. Her mommy reasoned, bargained, bribed to no avail. So Mima had to come in and have a come to Jesus talk with her…because I somehow knew what to say? Well, turns out I did because she agreed…very reluctantly…to let her mother finish the stage makeup and to dance at least that competition, that day. Of course she had fun and soon forgot how weird the eyelashes, eye makeup and rhinestones made her feel.

I told Hollie that it will get easier. At least she has one thing I never had…skill…so she won’t likely ever glue her little girl’s eyelashes shut.

AHEM!

And it was a little bit easier the second time around this weekend There were no tears, no quitting. Mommy didn’t have to reason, bargain or bribe. There were no come to Jesus talks with Mima either. Thank goodness! No this time while Mommy got her stage ready, Mima had to sit on the bathroom floor hold her hands and sing with her…the ABC song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star…oh and Teenage Dream and That’s What Makes You Beautiful…as loud as we could.

Hey, you have your getting ready routine and Hazel has hers!

The acoustics in a hotel bathroom are amazing!

and in a flash I am back in 2001


Oh to be 12 years younger! The things I would (and most definitely would not) do. But one can not go back in time…can they?

My darling husband early this morning ran in Dell Osso’s 2nd Annual Mud Run on the Farm. Yes, the same mud run I ran last year. He trained a little with his Krav Maga class that he takes twice a week but I won’t lie to you, I was genuinely concerned about how he would do…considering how heavily he STILL smokes (even when he often finds himself gasping for air after a coughing fit) and considering how high his cholesterol is and that study released this past week linking male patterned baldness to a higher risk of heart disease.I had a dream/nightmare last night that he collapsed while running and then I woke up…HATE when that happens! So this morning, as he headed off to run in the mud and Jodie and I headed off to another dance competition I couldn’t help but be worried.

What can I say, I sometimes often worry for nothing. It’s my nature, it’s who I am, it is a result of decades of bad things happening and my worst fears realized. But, thankfully, Bill did great completing the run and obstacles in the mud in just under an hour.

Way to go, honey!!!

So now I could exhale, relax and enjoy watching Jodie and Hazel dance. Then the phone rings…

Actually it was FaceTime…

Up pops my daughter Zoë. She’s crying. Her face is bruised and bleeding and she is crying. It seems that she was in an accident on her way to work. She crashed her skateboard.

WHAT?!

Yeah, she likes to get from point A to point B on a skateboard and yeah, without a helmet…

Mom, please…

But yes, she crashed her skateboard and hit her head, scraped up her face, chipped a tooth and broke her nose…broke her nose for now the 4th time.

OH dear glob! And people think I’m joking when I declare that she has an exhausted guardian angel who probably cringes every single time she leaves the house.

Every.

Single.

Time.

She is so lucky.

So damn lucky.

And I am perhaps another 20 years older thanks to her latest misadventure.

I might have aged greatly but this picture she sent to me while in the ER in LA took me back 12 years…and not in a good way.

I swear hours later I am just starting to breathe a little bit easier. Thank goodness for a late night run and some wine. My darling husband rocked the mud run today. My dancing daughter, Jodie and my tiny dancing grand daughter, Hazel, both are off to a great start with this weekend’s dance competition earning high awards and my daughter Zoë is home safe in LA under the watchful eye of her boyfriend…and a guardian angel who likely could use a good stiff drink right about now.