"The Christmas Dream"

We signed Ava up for dance classes at The Edge Performing Arts Studio in the fall. She wanted to take ballet and tap. Special ordered tap and ballet shoes later she went to her first class. After the first couple of classes they started practicing for the BIG "Christmas Show". I started to hear other parents talking about last year's Christmas show being 2 hours in length with practices every day for a week before the show. I started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. As the months went by we received a practice schedule for THE SHOW. Sure enough, 3 hour practices five days in a row plus two "shows" on Saturday. Yikes. For a 4 year old? How would she handle that schedule? Would she be a tired little wreck by the time the actual show came around?

Another month passed and we got our bill for THE SHOW costume. $50.00. A Wizard of Oz "Dorothy" costume still clearly marked $20.00 from Target. Gulp.

Finally, we entered the week of practice. Low and behold, Ava was fine with the schedule. Her mother was not. Screaming kids everywhere. Practices that started a solid hour after they were to begin. Older dancers throwing out f bombs around the little kid classes. Noise, noise and more noise. I am positive I sent out multiple text messages to friends to "bring alcohol", "bring sharp objects", or both, during the hours spent on the 1980's sectional next to the pile of sweaty dance gear.

The day of the show Ava was very excited. She put on her beautiful dress and we carefully applied black eyeliner, mascara and bright pink blush. What a cutie pie. We arrived an hour and a half before the first show, as required, and waited an hour for something to happen. A half an hour before show time the kids were rounded up and stuffed backstage. I spent the next hour worrying that Ava was scared or lonely or crying backstage. The show started a solid twenty minutes late because someone was parked in the fire lane and we couldn't start until the offender moved her car (with North Dakota plates no less). After multiple pleas an elderly lady in front of us stormed off grumbling under her breath. FINALLY the show was about to start.

The show itself was pretty amazing. Dane was speechless.

Ava's portion was about 65 seconds long. I refuse to calculate how much time and money was spent per second, but the thought did cross my mind. The experience was priceless for Ava though. She took the stage (albeit for a SHORT TIME) in front of 150 people. That takes some serious guts. But, I think we'll try a different activity after the new year!