Keep On Dancing

If I'm going to spend an entire weekend living and breathing dance recitals, I'm sure as heck going to squeeze at least two blog posts out of the adventure. So, prepare thyself.

First, there's the issue of Alexis and her ass-kicking. I have no photos of that child in any of her performances or costumes or anything mostly because she is officially old enough to not like all of her costumes. Maybe that's a law of averages thing? She has like seven costumes this year, so I suppose there is bound to be at least one that she would prefer not to have. Regardless, she isn't standing still for photos, which is fine. You will have to take my word for it that she looked and was amazing.

The one thing that stood out about her recital was that a looooot of the kids on her team had solos during the recital. The only people who performed solos at the recital this year were the seniors, so YIKES. Alexis' very best dance friend is graduating this year as well as several of the girls she is closest to, so this is going to be an interesting transition summer. She has -loved- her team this year. Hopefully next year will be the same, even if it is with several new people.

The fact that we're already thinking about next year is quite the thing, isn't it? Or maybe I'm alone in realizing that?

THAT is a thing that always stands out for me. If I'm surrounded by parents who are watching kids Mila's age dancing, I'll hear a ton of discussion about the future. There's always comments like, "That's my future Broadway dancer!" or "I can't wait for my daughter and her best friend to have a duet when they're in high school" and "She's going to be dancing like that some day!" referring to a 6-year old eventually dancing like one of the high school kids. There is so much optimism and joy and it's great.

Truly.

I love the "anything is possible" part of parenting.

But! Data! I love data, too!

The data says that while there are literally 1000+ dancers at the girls' studio, the number of graduating seniors this year is about 12. TOTAL. So while there are hundreds of girls Mila's age, historical data indicates that most of them will quit at some point. (My money says Mila will stop, but I wouldn't put a lot of money on that because the child does things just to prove me wrong almost daily. So.)

As an observer of these things, I know the majority stop between 6th and 9th grade. As in, they drop like flies once middle school starts. Each year brings another wave of dancers bailing. Which is fine, of course. It's totally fine. HOOBOY, I bet there are a lot of disappointed wannabe dance moms when it happens, but good for those kids for figuring out what they are and are not passionate about.

But Alexis has full intentions of continuing, and that's quite a thing. She said when she was five years old that she wanted to dance forever, and so far she is making good on that dream.