Dancing queen

This weekend was FULL. F.U.L.L. FULL.

It was wonderful and bittersweet and sometimes just plain sad. (But more on that later.)

This was a big dance weekend. Rock City Dance Center had its first recital. Y'all. Mrs. Kristen and Ms. Kaitlin (and of course Mr. John David) have done an AMAZING job with this studio. If you are looking for somewhere to enroll your kids for dance in Little Rock . . . STOP LOOKING!

Let's be honest for a minute. We have established that I am NOT an athlete . . . have I confessed that I am also NOT a dancer?

All my life I wanted to be a cheerleader. I would clap and pop and cheer all over the house. My junior year I decided that I wanted to go out with a bang my senior year. By this time I had exhausted all the B team sports available and so I thought, "What the heck?! I'm going to try out for cheerleading!"

Our cheerleaders also did some dancing . . . and some back handsprings . . . and most of them could do a back tuck as well.

I could do some high V's and some low V's and clap crisply.

Clinic was 4 days (Mon-Thurs) and tryouts were on Friday. Monday, I was pumped. We learned the cheers and the dance and Tuesday when we came back, I had the cheers down, but the dance . . . umm, not so much. (And let's not even talk about the back handsprings.) Wednesday, I was getting worried because I was NOT catching on quickly enough. At all. And I didn't want to quit, but I didn't want to look like an idiot either.

Enter a very sweet friend. Fact: high school girls rarely speak the truth in love . . . it's usually spoken in snark to your face or just behind your back. Perhaps there had been some of that as well, but one sweet friend pulled me aside and said, "You know I love you and I think that you are great at lots of things. But I am worried that you are working so hard and struggling to get it and I am afraid of you getting your feelings hurt and being disappointed. I just don't think this is for you."

Relief washed over me. I hugged her and went home. No tears shed. No dent in our friendship.

ALL that to say . . . Caroline didn't get her dance genes from me. She dances all over the house and spins and twirls and leaps and shakes and so dance felt like a good fit for her. We joined some friends who were switching to RCDC and it was one of THE BEST decisions we have made. The girl has confidence and moves! Rock City has this amazing ability to challenge and teach and raise the bar while keeping it fun and encouraging. I'm constantly amazed. They expect their dancers to have character above all.

I just love those people.

So, Saturday I watched 96 dances and (call me a nerd) I loved every minute of it. When you know how much talent plus HARD, HARD work goes into those few minutes of a dance, you can't help but appreciate it.

Congratulations RCDC!! The Basses totally ETJODT!!

Caroline and Mrs. Kristen

Highlights from the first competition in January . . . if you can believe it, they are even better now!!