Competition Season

Anybody else REAL over this thing where COVID spread lessens and we --immediately-- rush back into so-called normalcy, thereby setting off a new wave of spread and lather, rinse, repeat?

No?

Just me?

Well, then. I may be alone in wanting to slow our roll on returning to so-called normalcy, but I'm getting drug along for the ride as everybody else crashes back to 2019. The latest wave of "Pandemic? Oh, we're done with that!" has to do with dance competitions. I think I wrote about it back in the day, but dance competitions were downright pleasant during peak COVID restrictions. There were no insane awards ceremonies at 11:00 at night with 300 dancers crowded together on a stage. We had studios trying to not inter-mingle and therefore performing in blocks instead of spread over days. And we had parents staying far away from the dressing room.

NOT ANYMORE!

Alexis had a competition this past weekend which led to me being smacked in the face with no restrictions. I'll eventually stop whining about how that meant that Alexis had her solo at 2:00 on Friday, awards at 10:30 Friday night, a group dance at 5:30 Saturday, and another round of awards at nearly 11:00 pm Saturday. Eventually. Not today, certainly, but eventually I'll stop whining.

No, I won't. It's --so-- much time spent waiting around. But on the flip-side, some good did come of this particular competition:

- Alexis placed 10th with her solo, which is quite the accomplishment given that there were 112 dancers in the same category. This was only her second time doing a solo, so yay kid!

- The weather was amazing and fantastic and perfect and if you're going to have hours to pass, it's good to spend them walking around downtown Pittsburgh enjoying that amazing and fantastic and perfect weather. See also: Milkshake Factory. Life is always better when you have a Jake Shake in your hands.

- Alexis said, and this is a direct quote, "You're not a dance mom. You're a mom who has a kid who dances," and I can't possibly love that distinction more than I do.

- And my favorite, which is also a quote from Alexis, came after she spent Saturday waiting to do her group dance. This particular group dance is one that was choreographed by a fancy guest choreographer and required an extra audition to perform in. It's one of three "specialty" numbers the studio will strut out as their best-of-the-best during the season. Ergo, there are a lot of dance moms involved with that particular number. They get very, uh, serious about the whole thing. While you won't catch me in the dressing room EVER, they're back there primping their kids and making them run their dances before going on stage and basically they are far more invested than I am. Which, good for them, but Alexis made the best observation ever. "I want to be one of those kinds of dance moms when I grow up because all of their drama and stress is drama and stress that they made up themselves and how great would that be."

It totally would be.

Comments

[Courtney]

I watched Station Eleven on HBO (read the book a few years ago) and there were moments where I was actually jealous of the plague survivors because they couldn't go "back" and in many ways made much more beautiful lives for themselves. It's insane to me as well that we are just crashing back - perfect language for it.