On the last day of dance before our winter show and Christmas break Preslie came in and gave me a gift with a card attached. I didn't have time to open it then so I thanked her and set it aside. Towards the end of class she was acting a little sad and she came over to me and said "you didn't read my card". I told her why I didn't and then said I would open it and read it right then.
It was the sweetest card and made me smile, as soon as I read it she asked "can we?". I confirmed that she wanted to hunt acorns and even though it was not snowing that was what she wanted to do. Of course I told her I would and after class was over and I had cleaned up my stuff I went outside with her and hunted for acorns. She was the cutest and was so excited about it she couldn't even talk to me. Her Mom thanked me and told me how happy they were to be in my class. I really love all of the girls I get to teach this year and feel so privileged to be their dance teacher.
On Thursday we had our Winter show. It is a work in progress show and at least for my Kinderstars they just show 1 minute of the dance we are working on for Spring recital. We were at a different venue this year, Centennial Performing Arts Center rather then the Nampa Civic Center, and all of the dancers were in one big room. It was chaotic, loud and hard to be in but I did my best to keep track of my dancers and to keep them happy while they waited for their turn to perform. I have a class of ten who were performing first of my two classes and a class of 5 who were performing second. Shortly after all of the kids were dropped off and in my possession I had one girl from my smaller class, Livia, start to cry for her Mom. She has her big sister in the class with her but I think the environment was too much for her and she needed her Mom. I couldn't leave to go find her Mom and I did not have any adults in the room that could help me. I did my best by trying to distract her but she just cried. Someone came and told me I needed to get my first group out to perform and I frantically rounded up some dancers from our older class to help sit with the five I was leaving behind. I dumped the cryer with them and hurried the other class to the stage but by the time I got out there we missed our time because we took so long getting to the stage. We just went after the next group and my dancers danced to "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and they did awesome! I was so proud of them, they knew what they were doing and looked so cute, it was great!
Preslie Kensli and Elina
Ella Hadley
Alana June
June Hadley
After they were done I took them backstage to our waiting room where their Moms came to pick them up and I went to my other class. Livia was still crying and again I did my best to console her. About 5 minutes later it was time to take these girls to the stage and I lined them up and led them out with Livia still crying. I situated them on their stickers and jumped down to the front to help them out and hoped for the best. As soon as the music started they started dancing and about 2 seconds in I saw Livia start to do the motions and by about 10 seconds in her tears were gone and she was dancing! It was the greatest moment and I was so happy! These girls also did so amazing and I was so proud of all of them for their hard work. They danced to "Life's a Happy Song" and were so cute.
Livia Madison
Sydney Laiyla and Gemma
