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Dance competition
Feb. 26th, 2011 12:03 amThis place is really different from the last place we lived! Arkansas is sort of all about football (see: any movie set in the south). Our current university scrapped the intercollegiate sports programs to expand from a 2 year school to a 4 year university. You can still play intramurals, but that's it. Arkansas had a major library and a large visual arts scene. Not so much art here, and you already know the library is tiny. Where we were in NW Arkansas, it was I think the second most populated area in the state. Here, well, our local news is Yellowstone, our town is like, five square miles, and you sure don't want to break down between towns unless you like hiking 50 miles. And yet, despite the more rural setting (aside from the college, this is a potato farming area), the music program is HUGE. And, as I saw tonight, so is the dance program!
You already know about my 10YO, who had a full 9 weeks of required ballroom dance in school. Apparently my 13YO has quite a number of friends enrolled in studio ballroom dance classes (yes, boys!). A friend's kids were competing in a regional dance competition, so we went over to check it out. Wow. Friend's son won in his division--they were good. I also really liked Bonneville High School's numbers. (That would be Idaho Falls--here's a link to the number they did that I really liked, although it's not the same on video as in person. It has a narrative quality to it that doesn't come across as well in the camera viewfinder.) Preston High School was there, too. I kept waiting for Napoleon Dynamite to burst out with the Happy Hands Club. Hee. They were all middle school to high school kids, and the dancing was amazing. And really interesting, with all of the very different styles and music. My girls and PMB were equally fascinated. (My boys and husband are afraid of dancing and didn't want to come.)
Aside from enjoying just being there, where nothing was personally at stake and where I could cheer the teams I just plain liked, the whole thing made me think about rough draft writing. There was all this chaos--it was in a gym and people were climbing around on bleachers, sound was ricocheting off the hard walls, people were going in and out for snacks, parents were taking pictures, people were practicing in the wings, etc.--but on the floor, the dancers were busy getting it right. As long as they did that, the chaos didn't matter. That could sort itself out. I mean, when you watch this stuff on TV you get the music and the dancing and not all the chaos of the audience. That's a final edition. But this was the rough draft. Which means, there are a lot of tangled threads hanging around, but as long as you capture the heart of your story, you'll be okay.
You already know about my 10YO, who had a full 9 weeks of required ballroom dance in school. Apparently my 13YO has quite a number of friends enrolled in studio ballroom dance classes (yes, boys!). A friend's kids were competing in a regional dance competition, so we went over to check it out. Wow. Friend's son won in his division--they were good. I also really liked Bonneville High School's numbers. (That would be Idaho Falls--here's a link to the number they did that I really liked, although it's not the same on video as in person. It has a narrative quality to it that doesn't come across as well in the camera viewfinder.) Preston High School was there, too. I kept waiting for Napoleon Dynamite to burst out with the Happy Hands Club. Hee. They were all middle school to high school kids, and the dancing was amazing. And really interesting, with all of the very different styles and music. My girls and PMB were equally fascinated. (My boys and husband are afraid of dancing and didn't want to come.)
Aside from enjoying just being there, where nothing was personally at stake and where I could cheer the teams I just plain liked, the whole thing made me think about rough draft writing. There was all this chaos--it was in a gym and people were climbing around on bleachers, sound was ricocheting off the hard walls, people were going in and out for snacks, parents were taking pictures, people were practicing in the wings, etc.--but on the floor, the dancers were busy getting it right. As long as they did that, the chaos didn't matter. That could sort itself out. I mean, when you watch this stuff on TV you get the music and the dancing and not all the chaos of the audience. That's a final edition. But this was the rough draft. Which means, there are a lot of tangled threads hanging around, but as long as you capture the heart of your story, you'll be okay.
