About Amy
I just tried to kill a sorta big spider crawling up the wall behind my desk but hit it only hard enough to make it fall. So it’s back there now, regenerating, and I just know it’s going to get revenge by crawling up my leg - resulting in much shrieking and possibly therapy. So gee - posting has really slowed down around here. Not on purpose. I have a lot I want to write about, I just can’t seem to schedule the time. D’oh! But while I’m here, let’s talk about the girl. Amy is almost ten, almost finished with fourth grade, almost a tween. It seems like she’s getting taller, prettier, and more mature every day. Right now she’s at the age where she’s all arms and legs and she hurtles around the house on too-big feet, occasionally crashing into things and hovering between loving her favorite toys and thinking they are babyish. She’s getting more and more responsible and not too long ago we passed the very important milestone of being able to shower completely on her own without me having to check to make sure she’s washed all the shampoo out. All this, combined with the fact that we recently had to buy something that rhymes with braining tra (coverage more than support), and I feel like I’m losing my baby girl. Whaaa! But about the dance recital…I really like her dance teacher for many reasons, but I think she went a little overboard with this recital. She has always had a vendetta against general audience bonehead behavior like catcalling or whooping and her opinion is that her recitals are fine arts performances and should be treated as such. Fine with me - I think nothing is more annoying than frenzied parents calling out names when a group of girls takes the stage. But this year she declared that flash photography was strictly forbidden and anyone caught using a flash could be evicted from the auditorium. Of course many people ignored this at first but after one group of dancers performed the teacher’s husband, who was running the sound and lights, came on the PA and berated everyone for using flashes. “I hope you all feel like heels” were his exact words. The next time it happened, he actually stopped the music mid-dance, instantly throwing a dozen four-year-olds into confusion and fear while he yelled at their parents for taking pictures. Okay. This is not the New York City Ballet or the Lord of the Dance touring company. This is a smallish dance studio in a smallish city filled with smallish dancers whose parents have ponied up quite a lot of money for them to strut their stuff. Tuition went up by more than 40% last year plus there’s a hefty costume charge and a recital fee. I know it’s not the most expensive studio out there but it adds up. I think being able to snap a few pictures of the kid performing is part of the payoff for the parents. And when you consider that classes are only one hour a week and they spend almost the entire year working on the recital numbers, the pictures are a payoff for the dancers too. They want to see themselves in all their glittery, make-uped glory. We tried to take a few shots of Amy without the flash and of course they didn’t work out and she was so disappointed. Sure, hundreds of flashes going off can get annoying, but it’s a kid’s dance recital. You go expecting that the aisles will be crammed with video cameras, flashes will be going off like crazy, and moms will be climbing over you to get the best possible shot of their little darling. I happen to know that the income from the dance studio provides for more than half of the living expenses for the teacher and her family. So to get so worked up and angry about this seems a little bit like biting the hand that feeds you to me. I know several parents who were upset and I noticed that the applause at the end of the show when the teacher took the stage was not nearly as loud as it has been in year’s past. So what do you think? Did they go a bit overboard or is this a lesson we should all learn? * And by the way we’re only talking about Amy here because Mia decided after the Christmas recital that she was tired of dancing. Of course, after the spring recital she was sobbing uncontrollably because she missed it so much and dancing is her calling and now I have to try and get her back in when there’s a three-page waiting list. So maybe the yelling will work for us because someone got fed up and pulled their kid out, leaving a spot for Mia. We can only hope.
Due to a strange genetic mutation, Amy is a much more social person than either of her parents. She likes to be involved and though we try not to overwhelm her, this year May seemed to be another December with a flurry of recitals and school programs. In less than two weeks she had two 4th Grade programs, the school choir concert, a piano recital, and a dance recital (plus the six-hour dress rehearsal the night before). Here she is in the pioneer costume I made for her 4th Grade program.
One Response to “About Amy”
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June 20th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Cute photo… I can’t stop thinking about the spider though!!!