Cloudy with a chance of sun...

Last week was audition time at Lauren's dance studio. It was auditions for the company team as well as the national tour team. Originally Lauren did not want to try out for the national tour team, but changed her mind after the company dance showcase in June when she saw the tour team perform, and decided she simply must be a part of that fun.

Now for those of you who are dance novices and consider yourself clueless when it comes to the company team vs. the national tour team, let me provide you with a little education. This last year Lauren has been on the company team for hip hop and ballroom. The company team not only performs in showcases for parents and family, but also attends local competitions from January through May. Lauren has LOVED being on the company team and LOVED competing with her dance routines. She has a whole wall of trophies to prove it.

The national tour team begins competition in the fall and travels both in state and out of state to regional competitions and will be attending a national competition in Florida in June 2011. Bottom line, its a much bigger deal to be on the national tour team than the company team.

The members of the national tour team do jazz, hip hop, and ballroom. This is where I got a little concerned. Lauren has not done jazz in two years. I knew for her auditions that she would nail hip hop and ballroom, but I knew her jazz would be weak, but I crossed my fingers.....

The results were posted yesterday. Lauren did not make the national tour team. I spoke with one studio owners and just as I suspected it was her weakness in jazz. Lauren was really disappointed. I think as a parent one of the hardest things to see is when your child has worked hard to accomplish a goal and then falls just short of that goal. My concern as a parent was that she not get too down about it and then want to quit. I wanted Lauren to see this as an opportunity to reach and grow.

After consoling Lauren and telling her it was ok to be sad, we started to talk about the good things. Lauren made the company team for hip hop, ballroom and jazz. So although she does not get to compete on a regional and national level, she will get to compete locally. Also I told Lauren that she can spend the next year really working on her jazz skills. I reminded Lauren that she is a really good dancer and that with some practice and hard work she will have the jazz skills necessary to qualify for the national tour team. Lauren's mood lightened and she agreed that spending the next year working on jazz skills would be alright.

So although the day was cloudy because she didn't make the national tour team, there is a chance of sun....that's a good thing!

On a much more serious note, the judges at the studio, in a moment of complete derangement decided to let Katie be on the Boogie Babies company team. On the first day of auditions Katie was supposed to learn the dance she would be preforming the next day for the judges. But instead of learning the dance she stood there for the entire hour giving the teacher the snottiest look she could muster, and basically refusing to engage in any dancing. I was not holding out hope for the next day....... That night I asked Lauren to work on a few dance steps with Katie and the results were slightly improved. I still didn't have a whole lot of hope. The next day I sent Katie into the audition and decided to write off the whole experience and assumed that we would be trying again next year, when perhaps our maturity level had improved. Well unbeknownst to me apparently that girl can turn on the charm and dance when necessary, because she wowed the judges and secured herself a place on the company team. Who knew???!!!