Light (in the Dark) on Their Feet

First, some background: Susan and I are happy to have our daughters involved in a variety of activities, but we want to maintain some sanity in our family's weekly schedule and be able to eat supper together every night. During the school year, here has been the girls' schedule of activities:

• Tuesday: piano lesson for Abigail, dance class for Hillary, dance class for Abigail and Suzanna (together)
• Wednesday: Susan and the girls work out at the community center, church choir for Hillary, church choir for Abigail and Suzanna (together)
• Thursday: piano lesson for Suzanna, gymnastics class for Hillary and Abigail (together), Kevin and Suzanna work out at the community center
• Sunday: Sunday school in the morning before or after church (depending on which service we choose that day)

School will be out soon, and the girls' summer activities schedule is much more hectic; but by then Susan will be out of school, too, and free to shuttle them about at various times of the day. In the meantime, the schedule above keeps them active but not overly involved (in fact, sometimes not active enough--the community center visits have fallen to the wayside in recent weeks).

In any case, tonight all three girls joined their classmates from the Academy of Dance to present a recital of dances for the public to show off the results of their Tuesday night lessons. The girls' teacher hadn't planned to hold a public performance this spring but decided at the last minute to do so in order to be fair: the older girls had had a performance opportunity in Bismarck, so she wanted the rest of the students to have a chance to perform, too.

Hillary's class danced to "Tamourine Dance":

Abigail and Suzanna's class danced to "Enchanted Suite":


The girls' dances were too brief and were preceded and followed by "dead air" moments (for costume changes? herding ballerinas into place?) that were far too long (poor planning), making for a herky-jerky and plodding evening in the auditorium. Also, the man seated directly in front of me talked loudly and continuously throughout every number, commenting to the people next to him on what he saw on stage or chatting with the little children in his lap, apparently unaware that he should shut up at an arts event where the audience has paid to see/listen to the performance and not to the mental vomit of some uncouth schmo who isn't paying attention to the stage anyway and should just have stayed home if all he wanted to do was talk. But other than that, it was a great night!

No, really, the girls did a fine job. At least that's what Susan told me; I didn't get to watch because I was trapped behind the camera view-finder, waiting for a daughter to pop into my view and then snapping madly, hoping that some small portion of the photos would be in-focus enough to salvage. From what Susan said, they moved gracefully and demonstrated growth from when they first started dancing years ago. Their dances brought a tear to Susan's eye--and in a good way. The tears in my eyes, however, were from digging my nails into the armrests of my seat to avoid reaching out and strangling the jackass in front of me. The arts can be so cathartic, can't they?!

P.S. Recall last year's spring ballet recital?