They are five

Last weekend, we endured what has become known in our house as The Great Weekend Dancing Extravaganza. And extravagant it certainly was! A dress rehearsal and three concerts over the two days of the weekend - hair gel, curlers, make up, costumes, tights, ballet shoes, rehearsals, performances, tickets, intervals and grand finales. There were laughs, tears, frowns, smiles and, of course, many late nights.



By Monday, there were more tears than laughs and more tantrums than excited hugs. Despite days off on both Monday and Tuesday to recuperate, the little dancer was still tired and grumpy today, although I'd finally had enough and foisted her back on to her teachers (does that make me a bad mother, I wonder?). The whole thing was almost as though it was designed to be stress inducing - from the gruelling schedule, developed to contain either stupefying hours-long waits, or nosebleed-inducing rushes between performances, to the multitude of do's and don'ts (do ensure that children have spare pairs of stockings, they will not be allowed onstage with laddered stockings; don't be in the vicinity of the dressing room during concerts; do be at the dressing room immediately after your child comes off stage; don't ... well, you get the idea) the whole weekend left me reeling, exhausted and thinking - surely there's a better way than this?

And then, in the uncanny way these things have, I stumbled across this SMH piece (linked to by the lovely ladies over at Hoyden About Town), and I had a sudden utopian vision ...

I want to start a dance school. I'd call it "Get up and wiggle". It would be dance sessions (not classes) for little kids where we have one big room with mirrors, coloured lights, and a disco ball. We'd put on some funky music - different stuff all the time - and all the kids and all the parents would get out on the dance floor and wiggle. No rules, no special equipment, and no talent required. We'd even have a concert - we'd all get up on stage at once, say "Ready, Mister Music!" and then wiggle to our hearts' content. And we would get the audience to join in. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Anyway, the good news is, the dancer has decided to do swimming lessons next year. You have no idea how pleased I was to hear that. I've done my dash with dancing, I think. Hopefully for 2010 she decides to learn an instrument - a nice one, that doesn't make any noise ...