Last night our family indulged in a yearly ritual wherein the children dress up and perform for the public, the mother dutifully photographs and praises said dancing, and the father engages in every avoidance technique possible. Hooray for Hurricane Elementary School Spring Dance Festival!! This year marked the 57
th year of this beloved community event (my tongue is so firmly in my cheek I may never get it out!) Well, I should admit that there are many people who truly enjoy this event, where all the children at Hurricane Elementary learn a dance with their fellow grade members and then perform the dances in the high school gym. Many people have fond memories of themselves, excited and nervous, performing in years past; of their own children decked out in their Sunday best and doing the same; maybe even precious grandchildren, smiling shyly or clowning around grandly for the SRO audience. These memories and experiences draw them yearly to admire and support each new generation in this endeavor. It's truly a community tradition. Some people, however, see things differently. There are now 3 schools that serve the Hurricane Valley, and neither of the other schools hold a dance festival, so it's really not a community-wide event anymore. Some people didn't care to perform silly dances when they were young, and don't like feeling emotionally blackmailed into attending the event now that their children are in it. ("How can you not support your children by being thrilled to watch them perform inane dance numbers which require massive investment of time, but of necessity, little in the way of talent? Don't you love them?") My husband and I were sincerely hoping the dance festival would die a quiet death with the move to the new school building earlier this year. For a while, it seemed that we might be right. January, February and then even March went by without mention of the blessed event. Was it gone? Finished forever? Alas, the truth reared it's ugly head in April (after the traditional performance date had passed) when Katie told me how pleased her teacher was that she could already hula hoop, since that meant she was ready to perform at the dance festival in May. Hopes dashed, we slapped smiles on our faces and prepared for the event. The
pre-appointed day arrived. Russell headed off to the temple to support a former home-teaching family whose son is preparing for a mission (God bless the
Garretts!! Russ will be bringing by some delicious reward for your excellent timing.) I washed, dressed, shod, and primped my 5 children for an evening of performances. (Aubrey does not attend elementary school anymore, of course, but she coincidentally had a choir concert the same evening.) We dropped Aubrey off,
delivered the children to their various starting points around the high school, and went inside to find a place to sit. Good thing we got there 30 minutes early, because it's another community tradition that all the seats are taken by 10 minutes before the performance, and after that you have to walk up and down the floor scanning the crowd for people you know and holding up your fingers looking for the correct number of gaps in which to squeeze yourself and your kin. Due to our early arrival, Sarah and I scored seats near the front/bottom of the bleachers, and then I got to listen to her complain about how thirsty she was for 20 minutes. I couldn't take her to get a drink, because we would lose our places if I left. Luckily, Grandma
Cleopha came, we were able to let her seat-sit while we went to get a drink. Performance time!! I spent the next hour snapping photos, assuring Sarah we would get another drink when the concert was over, admiring the dancers, shifting so all parts of my bum were equally numb, telling Sarah that we were
not going to get a drink now, taking video, applauding, pulling Sarah off of the floor ("You're in a dress, sweetie."), smiling at the kids I knew, telling Sarah she could dance when she was in kindergarten, cheering and applauding, taking photos of Sarah between dances to keep her occupied, adjusting my knees so they weren't in the armpits of the man in front of me, and generally having a super time. Then, just like that (
hah!), it was over. Gathering the children is always a challenge because they each want to get one of the much-coveted helium balloons used for decoration. After only about 20 minutes, we were out the door. We went out to the tail end of Aubrey's concert, went through children gathering
rigmarole again (although this time the coveted item wasn't a balloon, but a drink of water from the most far-flung fountain in the school.) At last, together again, we went home, I gave them all a snack
("No, I am not feeding you another entire dinner. This is a snack!!") and sent them to bed. I was so exhausted that I literally left all the dinner dishes on the counter and just went to bed. What an evening! I don't know why everyone doesn't just treasure these opportunities and experiences. I know I will someday miss these precious days of their childhoods, but I really think my life will be just as full and my memories just as dear if they do not include the 58
th annual Hurricane Elementary School Spring Dance Festival. What do you suppose the chances of that are?
Last night our family indulged in a yearly ritual wherein the children dress up and perform for the public, the mother dutifully photographs and praises said dancing, and the father engages in every avoidance technique possible. Hooray for Hurricane Elementary School Spring Dance Festival!! This year marked the 57th year of this beloved community event (my tongue is so firmly in my cheek I may never get it out!) Well, I should admit that there are many people who truly enjoy this event, where all the children at Hurricane Elementary learn a dance with their fellow grade members and then perform the dances in the high school gym. Many people have fond memories of themselves, excited and nervous, performing in years past; of their own children decked out in their Sunday best and doing the same; maybe even precious grandchildren, smiling shyly or clowning around grandly for the SRO audience. These memories and experiences draw them yearly to admire and support each new generation in this endeavor. It's truly a community tradition. Some people, however, see things differently. There are now 3 schools that serve the Hurricane Valley, and neither of the other schools hold a dance festival, so it's really not a community-wide event anymore. Some people didn't care to perform silly dances when they were young, and don't like feeling emotionally blackmailed into attending the event now that their children are in it. ("How can you not support your children by being thrilled to watch them perform inane dance numbers which require massive investment of time, but of necessity, little in the way of talent? Don't you love them?") My husband and I were sincerely hoping the dance festival would die a quiet death with the move to the new school building earlier this year. For a while, it seemed that we might be right. January, February and then even March went by without mention of the blessed event. Was it gone? Finished forever? Alas, the truth reared it's ugly head in April (after the traditional performance date had passed) when Katie told me how pleased her teacher was that she could already hula hoop, since that meant she was ready to perform at the dance festival in May. Hopes dashed, we slapped smiles on our faces and prepared for the event. The pre-appointed day arrived. Russell headed off to the temple to support a former home-teaching family whose son is preparing for a mission (God bless the Garretts!! Russ will be bringing by some delicious reward for your excellent timing.) I washed, dressed, shod, and primped my 5 children for an evening of performances. (Aubrey does not attend elementary school anymore, of course, but she coincidentally had a choir concert the same evening.) We dropped Aubrey off, 
delivered the children to their various starting points around the high school, and went inside to find a place to sit. Good thing we got there 30 minutes early, because it's another community tradition that all the seats are taken by 10 minutes before the performance, and after that you have to walk up and down the floor scanning the crowd for people you know and holding up your fingers looking for the correct number of gaps in which to squeeze yourself and your kin. Due to our early arrival, Sarah and I scored seats near the front/bottom of the bleachers, and then I got to listen to her complain about how thirsty she was for 20 minutes. I couldn't take her to get a drink, because we would lose our places if I left. Luckily, Grandma Cleopha came, we were able to let her seat-sit while we went to get a drink. Performance time!! I spent the next hour snapping photos, assuring Sarah we would get another drink when the concert was over, admiring the dancers, shifting so all parts of my bum were equally numb, telling Sarah that we were not going to get a drink now, taking video, applauding, pulling Sarah off of the floor ("You're in a dress, sweetie."), smiling at the kids I knew, telling Sarah she could dance when she was in kindergarten, cheering and applauding, taking photos of Sarah between dances to keep her occupied, adjusting my knees so they weren't in the armpits of the man in front of me, and generally having a super time. Then, just like that (hah!), it was over. Gathering the children is always a challenge because they each want to get one of the much-coveted helium balloons used for decoration. After only about 20 minutes, we were out the door. We went out to the tail end of Aubrey's concert, went through children gathering rigmarole again (although this time the coveted item wasn't a balloon, but a drink of water from the most far-flung fountain in the school.) At last, together again, we went home, I gave them all a snack 
("No, I am not feeding you another entire dinner. This is a snack!!") and sent them to bed. I was so exhausted that I literally left all the dinner dishes on the counter and just went to bed. What an evening! I don't know why everyone doesn't just treasure these opportunities and experiences. I know I will someday miss these precious days of their childhoods, but I really think my life will be just as full and my memories just as dear if they do not include the 58th annual Hurricane Elementary School Spring Dance Festival. What do you suppose the chances of that are?
I AGREE!!!!!
ReplyDeletei love the dance festival, but i only have my oldest two in it and have only been participating for 2 years. but we did have to sit in the nose bleed section and had trouble gathering the kids after, but hey we joined the other 1000 families at dairy queen after for dinner adn ice cream.
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