Understanding Is A Dance

So, this understanding business isn’t going so hot. I don’t understand economics. I don’t understand politics. And I definitely don’t understand evil. At this point, I’m not certain I want to understand these things. But I’m not going to dive into such heavy topics when there are simple mundane things I don’t understand, like say ballet recitals.

For years, I’ve attended local ballet recitals. It never fails that every year there’s that one kid… This year, it was a precious little thing in a yellow tutu that flopped on stage with her mouth hippo-wide and crocodile tears streaming down her face. When the dance helper attempted to coax her into dancing, she proceeded to become a ball of limp, dead weight. The more coaxing the helper gave, the louder the child’s wails, and the unrulier her she became. Her not moving, interfered with the other girls attempting to follow the routine with their tiny, uncoordinated preschool bodies. In the meantime, it all is forever being captured by a professional videographer who fees start at $35.00 for a DVD. (Parents are prohibited from filming in a ploy to increase video sales. Also, the older children perform different dances on more than one day, and that means their parents wind up purchasing more than one DVD. Clever sales tactic.)

Now, this is a small child; so, I’m not expecting her to be rational or anything less than egocentric. What baffles me is the reactions of the parents/crowd—the laughter and the “oohs and ahhs” isn’t that precious? No. No, it isn’t. It’s a temper tantrum. A temper tantrum that I’ll have to watch over and over in my home when I watch the DVD. However, I can overlook that. Well, I really won’t, but I’ll pretend I will.

What chaps my buttocks is that the older girls who spend hours practicing and suffer through blisters, bleeding toes, bruised knees, and fatigue from having late classes after a long day at school (minus a naptime). These older girls are often seen in sitting on the floor between classes cramming for tests or writing essays. Many are academic honor students despite spending between fifteen to twenty hours a week at the dance studio taking contemporary/lyrical, classical, and pointe classes. These girls aspire to become professional ballerinas and make sacrifices to be at dance class daily. Their tuition, costumes, and shoes are all more expensive. These girls take the incentive to put in extra hours of practice and fundraise for the studio. These girls are also the helpers of the little ones. One would think that during a recital, their effort would be appreciated and rewarded by applause. But no. Who do the parents/crowd cheer for the loudest during bows? Little miss let-me-mop-the-floor-with-my-tutu-by-wallowing-around-for-no-good- reason.

The crowd seems to ignore that although these girls are older, they are still children. They have feelings. They are on stage, because they love it and want to entertain others. They hope to get feedback in the applause to let them know when they know when they are doing something pleasing and correct. They receive slightly more than crickets in applause to the degree it’s almost insulting. Even worse, is that the parents are the smaller children often stand from their seats during the older girls’ performances and leave. So, while the parents of older kids endure the horrors of an hour of watching skipping and jumping out of rhythm of the little ones, their parents aren’t respectful enough to remain seated during the performance of the older children—and interfering with the unauthorized videotaping the older children’s parents are doing.

If the older children’s parents engaged in the same behavior, it would be pandemonium. Red-faced parents would yell, “How dare you not pay attention to my rhythmically-challenged child with the lackluster choreography.” Yes, I get that’s a savage assessment of the situation. I guess it proves a failure in understanding.