Dancin' Girl

I can't only highlight my talented boys:

Catherine had her dance recital last Saturday night, and I have some video from the rehearsal (no cameras allowed during the actual performance).

I don't know how other dance schools do their recitals, but for Catherine's, the recital is built around 5 or 6 clusters of performances, each cluster based on a musical or a film, with different classes from the school dancing to songs from that film. This year, Catherine danced to songs from Pebble and the Penguin (ballet), Jungle Book (jazz), and Cats (tap).

The videos are from the rehearsal, so you can hear the teacher in some spots. For the Pebble and the Penguin dance (see more about the movie here, plus a link to watch it online for free, if you're so inclined), Catherine is in the group of girls on the left at the strat of the video. She's the one standing up on the left in that group. You can try to follow her from there.



For the Jungle Book piece, Catherine begins in the front row (the one that comes out from the left). She's the second one from the left (hard to tell in that costume).



Finally, for the Cats piece, she's in the front row, all the way on the right.



I think she did awesome, and even better during the actual performance the next night.

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Watching Catherine dance always gets me misty, because when she first started taking dance classes, she was four, and the lessons were on a Tuesday morning, and I wasn't teaching at that time of day, so I took her to class. I remember her chubby legs not moving very well. Two years ago, I was in tears watching her dance ballet -- she was suddenly so graceful.

As much as I loved watching her dance, another of my favorite parts of the night came later in the performance, when the older students performed to scenes from Victor/Victoria, the film in which Julie Andrews shed her Mary Poppins image (and her shirt). In case you've never seen it, it's about a woman who can't get a job singing in a Paris club, so she pretends to be Victor, a female impersonator.

Before the recital started, Peter, seated on my left, asked me what Victor/Victoria was about. I gave him the quick explanation: "It's about a woman who pretends to be a man who pretends to be a woman." His 13-year-old mind grasped the concept. "That's weird," he pronounced.

John was seated on my right. His 11-year-old mind could not quite handle the deconstruction of gender categories. During the performance, he turned to me.

John: "I don't get this. What's Victor/Victoria about?"

Me: "It's about a woman who pretends to be a man who pretends to be a woman."

John [after a few seconds of blank staring]: "Wait...what?"

Me: "A woman pretends to be a man and then pretends to be a woman."

John [more blank staring]: "So is she a man or a woman?"

Me [fully aware that the performance is still going on]: "I'll explain later."

John watched the performance for two or three more minutes and then turned to me again.

John: "This actually looks pretty funny. Can we rent the video sometime?"

Me [without hesitation]: "I don' t think so."


(Sitting next to John is almst as much fun as watching Catherine dance.....)