The Trails We Face As Girls

I got home this evening and Sara came running down the stairs in the entrance of the building to tell me the developments of their next musical/concert (given by the church choir she belongs to, though she doesn’t belong to the church. Reminds me of my friend’s Karen’s experiences as a child who loved church music and her parents were both atheists). Apparently Sara has been given a rather important roll, a forgetful doctor, and she is not only expected to sing, speak texts, but dance as well. The main protagonist, the witch, casts a spell and The Dizzy Doctor has to dance.

Sara was terrified about it all. I told her that there were only three alternatives: do a funny dance, just turn in circles or move across the stage so it looks as if it is dancing even though it is not, or dance an easy routine with someone else on the stage. Tears. Hysterics. She couldn’t think of anything worse than having to dance (yeaks!) in front of an audience. Singing, playing music (last weekend’s Rock and Pop School keyboard concert was brilliant), recite poetry, read out loud from a long text, or act a roll are no problems. But, to dance! God forbid. And this from a daughter of an ex-ex-ballet dancer.

I was trying to comfort her and give her some good suggestions; which translates that I was trying to steer her in the direction of dancing a funny dance. She stops me and says, “Mom, I really don’t think you understand the severity of the situation. You don’t understand how humiliating it will be”. I looked over at her and told her she was looking at someone who had to play a pig in the carnival of animals. Did she ever laugh!

We came up with a solution. When the witch casts her spell, she will go over to the coat rack (which I will be making) and use this as a dance partner. There will be a coat attached to it, which will swing around wildly when Sara is moving across the stage in sweeping movement. Phew! Now I can relax into my long weekend.

A friend and I are off to this wonderful place I went to last fall. Bliss. I’ll see if I can take a few more photos.