the pribyl family: Goodbye Dance

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Goodbye Dance

Aubrie just wrapped up her 8th year of dance. I can't believe she has been dancing that long! She is such an amazing dancer. She really feels the music and has great stage presence. However, the time has come that she had to make a choice between competitive dance and competitive gymnastics. Since she is starting a new school, that will be more demanding, we decided together that gymnastics would be the better choice. While the studio was a second home for her, if she needed to drop out to focus on school, that would be a hardship on her fellow dancers and instructors. Choreography would have to be redone, etc. Gymnastics on the other hand is more of an individual sport, and dropping out would not significantly affect the team. Also, Gymnastics only requires 4 hours of practice on school nights, while Dance was six. Though she is a hard worker, maintaining honor roll and principals list with 12 hours of extracurricular last year, we know that will not be possible with the new school.

It was a very hard decision for Aubrie. Her emotions about quiting vacillated. Part of her wanted out because of particular girl who had been unkind to her all year, but she was going to miss the dancing and friends tremendously. While the year was wrapping up I was torn, too. I loved the experience it was for her, but was ready to be done after too many competitions, a whole Saturday of pictures, and knowing I had another Friday of Rehearsal and a whole other Saturday for Recital. The Thursday before recital, Devney (the owner of the studio) called a special meeting for performing girls and their parents. We all thought it had to do with the recital. We were wrong. Devney announced that she had sold her studio. That news was good and bad. It was hard to know the studio was going to change, but it made it easier to leave.

Friday Rehearsal was LONG! Aubrie also had problems with the girl who has been awful to her all year. I could hear her talking bad about her in the changing room, and I told the girl that she needed to stop and be respectful. It was so sad to see Aubrie so rattled. After I spoke with the girl, Aubrie said, under her tears, "thanks Mom!" That girl wouldn't look at me the rest of the weekend. I felt bad, but there seemed to be some thankful and surprised Moms. I don't speak up much about things, unless they are REALLY important to me. I've learned that unless its important its not worth the battle. So I think that someone must have told her Mom, because she was on top of her the rest of the recital. So with that drama, I was ready to be done with dance.

That all changed Saturday. I loved watching her up on stage and having a good time. I enjoyed helping her backstage during the second show. At one point, I was watching her side stage and started reminiscing over all her years of dance. I started to tear up a little. After the last Recital show, everyone was VERY emotional. There were a lot of tears shed. Teachers, students, parents, (even I) was crying. It was definitely a bitter/sweet experience. I'm grateful for a dance studio that respected modesty, and values, and still gave them a great time with dance. Sophia was hilarious in her dance, by the way. She was super cute and she had the audience in stitches. The funniest thing was after each somersault she laid spread eagle on the mat for several seconds. I had people commenting on her performance all night. Always the ham. Everyone loves her there! The girls all fight over her. Sophia will be going back next year.

CANDY

Sadly, the only dance I got photos. This was a fun hip hop dance they took to 3 different competitions. They had candy necklaces, rings, and each girl had their own silk screen candy jacket. Aubrie was Sour Patch!