Don't You Wanna Dance?

 
  "Don't You Wanna Dance?" was the title to this year's dance recital, and well, to be honest, watching kids tip tap, shake their booties, and hip hop did create some yesteryear memories in me and did, actually make me want to dance.  If I thought I'd get an audience, I would have gone home and pulled out some old dancing videos, scratchy and shaky film quality included.
     In all the dance recitals I've been to, this was the first one I've sat through in its entirety.  Back in the day, I got to be on the other side of the stage, playing around in the dressing room, or running the halls with my friends.  It was a very free, very fun time and nothing like what I experienced now as a parent of a dancer. The strict rules and regulations with drop off and pick up were, I suppose, good for the safety of all the kids, but sad that they were needed.  I regret that the studio brats, the ones who live at the dance studio on a regular basis and performed numerous times, wouldn't get to experience hanging out on the wings of the stage as if they ran the joint, rummaging around in rooms off limits, and hiding in the very last row of the auditorium telling secrets, and eating smuggled snacks.  No, there is no way those young dancers got to do that.  They had a different kind of fun, I'm sure, but very benign, and closely watched.
     But for now, being "closely watched" was exactly what my 3-year-old needed.  With her, ahem, potty problem, she needed her own personal attendant.  And since I had to drop her off and not see her for 3 1/2 hours, I had to put her bathroom habits into the hands of a room mom that I did not know.  And because pick-up was so formal and rushed, I haven't a clue as to how it all went.  And without being too tell-all, I will share that her tights and costume did have to be washed.
    To bring it all back to the positive,  my old-school thoughts on dance recitals, the regimented new protocol, and Lanie's small bladder, could not have clouded how exciting it was, how proud I was to see my girls on stage tapping away, doing their best to remember the dance without careening their neck to watch their teacher in the wings. Lydia "Rock(ed) Around the Clock" with the biggest smile on her face, and Lanie truly stole the show, as all the littlest dancers do, enjoying the limelight and shaking her tail feather to "Everybody Wants to be a Cat."
    After three hours of music and dancing, I don't think anyone could have left the auditorium without a little bit of lift to their feet, and warm heart for those shy kids who had their first bright-lights experience.