Day Three Hundred Forty-Seven

Uh, COVID fixed dance competitions. WHOWOULDATHUNKIT?

I mentioned previously that the scheduling was much improved. Instead of losing an entire weekend to less than 20 minutes of dance, all of Alexis' performances were crammed into a short period of time. That was every bit as beautiful as I expected it to be.

But, wait. There's more!

It was only our studio there. And there was a strict "2 observers per dancer" limit. So in an auditorium that could have fit 1000 people, there couldn't have been but maybe 50. Social distancing was forced with taped off rows of seats. In fact, only every fifth row was available, and even then it was staggered as to which seats in the row were open for business. And ... AND! They made it impossible to sit with people not from your household because they only had two seats open in that row.

::Swoon::

That means I didn't have to brush past strangers and I didn't have somebody's grandparents stepping on my feet in the middle of a performance because they just HAD to get out right that second. I also didn't have to deal with people coughing or sneezing on me- real things that have happened before - because no sick people were allowed inside, no matter how much they swore it was just allergies.

AND THERE WAS NO BIG AWARDS THING AT THE END! I think that might be my favorite part. Dance competitions usually have a big awards thing every four hours or so. It includes every dancer humanly possibly shoved on stage, a lot of screaming and cheering, and generally a whole lot of trophies getting handed out. This particular year and at this competition, only soloists will get trophies and they will get them when they get home. The money usually spent on trophies was donated to charity instead.

Good call, people. Those trophies just end up collecting dust at the studio.

No awkward group dinners.

The most spread out dressing room I have ever seen, and with only our studio and with a strongly worded ask that parents not help their kids get dressed unless absolutely necessary.

Strictly enforced mask wearing. So strict I saw someone kicked out.

A live stream that worked for most of the night (they usually work for like 3 minutes).

And a really happy Alexis because it had been a year since she last danced on a stage and she very much so missed it.