What a Weekend

It’s June, which means performance season when you have dancers.  We’ve made it through one recital, and we have one more to go.  The next one will be a little easier on us–they have dress rehearsal and the recital on the same day, and it’s short.  This past weekend was pretty intense.

We kicked off the weekend on Friday with my son’s jazz band competing about an hour away in a Festival of Bands.  They took the top spot in their category (middle and elementary school bands–they were the only elementary school) and had the third highest score of any school in the competition.  Considering the fact that they are mostly ages 10 and 11, with a few 9-year-olds like my son sprinkled in, it’s impressive that they held their own against kids as old as 18.  All that hard work paid off!  Congratulations to the school with the top spot, which turned out to be another high school in our county.

Here they are performing “Swingin’ Shepherd Blues.”  There’s a singleton soloist and then some pairs.  My son is in the second pair to solo.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi8al3TQ-Xw]

My son’s band also received honors for best soloist, best woodwinds, and best rhythm section in their middle school category.

One of the good things that came out of all the busyness was confirmation that we made the right choice when we joined the kids’ new dance studio.  Both kids have had a wonderful year, and I could see on their faces how much they were enjoying themselves.  Off the stage, my kids have very different personalities.  Put them under the spotlight in front of an audience, though, and they’re both born performers.

I hate to say it, because I know I’m not supposed to have a preference, but I think my daughter’s ballet was my favorite of the dances they were in.  I suppose a small part of that may have been that it reminded me so much of something she might have done at their previous studio.  This video is from the dress rehearsal, and it’s not particularly high quality, but you should be able to get a sense of what the girls are doing.  Mine is the one who waves at the camera about a minute in.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67u6cyvcXiA]

At the recital, the girls were even better.  They all looked so happy and confident, pouring themselves into the dance.  Like I said, I’m glad we made this choice–watching them on stage, it finally felt like home.

My son and his class had their best performance with “Mr. Postman” (he was the postman, of course).  In similar fashion to my daughter’s class, they turned it up several notches at the recital.  My son caught my eye (I was right in front) at the beginning and gave me a huge, wicked grin.  He started flirting with the audience a little, giving these incredibly cheeky looks which would have been visible to about the first five rows.  They ate it up, which not only fueled him but his classmates as well.  It was priceless.

If you want to see any other videos from the weekend, you can visit my YouTube channel and watch the rest.  This weekend’s performances are tagged as Jazz Band and Dance.  Next weekend is the kids’ Irish dance recital.  If you’re local, come see them!  You can send me a message for the details.

If your family has participated in end-of-year performances, congratulations on all the hard work.  If you have upcoming recitals and concerts, I wish you the best.  I hope your experiences are as good as ours have been this year.