Yes, we've earned another STAR IN OUR CROWN! We spent all afternoon Saturday at a "Just for Kix" competition with our daughter (and about 400 other 12-year-old girls decked out in their leotards, jazz pants, thousands of hairpins, and enough hairspray to shellac every mini van in the stadium parking lot!) The photo above shows just one section of dozens of sections during that day.This was a completely new experience for my husband and I; we felt like fish out of water. We can handle soccer games, baseball games, art shows, band concerts, orchestra concerts, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, archery, watching movies . . even watching the corn grow! But, DANCE GROUP COMPETITION?! Yep, a new experience for us!
Imagine a very large arena, thousands of parents, grandparents, siblings, popcorn, nachos, sodas, water bottles, and hundreds and hundreds of very excited, very loud, very energized pre-teen girls. Some, very few, but some of the moms in attendance went overboard in enthusiasm for their little darlings. They had on the team shirts (color coordinated with their daughter's leotards), the same glitter mascara and eye shadow, hand-held cheer signs that they held up and waved when their group was performing, and lots of high-pitched screaming while their girls performed. It was embarrassing, thankfully they were NOT the norm. Most of the others in attendance probably felt the same way we did - "how did we end up here? I could be doing yard work. Changing the oil in the car. Brushing the dog's teeth. Anything but watch hours and hours of a dance competition!"
One group after another danced to one of six songs, each doing the same six routines to those songs, "Rock Your Body", "Work This", "Wild Child", "Twister", "My Sharona", and "Ultimate" to name a few. But after just a few routines, I soon found myself feeling differently about the whole thing, like the Grinch when he hears the Whos in Whoville singing, my own heart grew three sizes that day!
Our daughter and her team danced their hearts out and had a blast doing it. We learned a lot that day, most importantly that 12-year-old girls have a level of energy like nothing else; an energy that should be captured and used to solve our energy crisis! They were all so positive and happy and proud and having fun! Most of the girls on my daughter's dance team also play soccer, basketball, softball, and/or volleyball, HARD. They are smart, funny, and multi-talented. They are not yet at the age where they give in to society's pressures about how their bodies should look, they simply performed with all their might in all their awkward glory!
Hats off! - to the energy, enthusiasm, and hard work of pre-teen girls everywhere! They will soon rule the world!
