Finally on stage

The little one, had figured out that doing any extracurricular activity like music, dance etc. is a lot of hard work and the rewards for going on stage are not proportional to the work. She could throw a tantrum for not being tall enough to get on the Harry Potter ride and get a game console. Compare that to working for a whole year and getting on some annual day program for which you get a new pencil or eraser.. it was no contest!

She pretty much said "No" without a second thought to any classes that invovled the word "practice". 

Recently though, her close friends were all roped in to do a school performance for the International festival. A fun looking Dandiya dance.. so we convinced her to go. In spite of missing many sessions with her flu, she made up for it by doing a nice job of dancing on stage. More than that, we now know the girl has moves. We did not know she could shake her hips like that or have such expressions.. 

Here is a picture taken by her teacher. We are truly blessed to live in a place where an International festival is organized where kids show culture and dancing from across the globe to their classmates. There were Kung fu demos by little kids that were simply amazing, Gangnam style dancing, Japanese dancing, Chinese dance, Persian songs, Bengali poetry.. it was refreshing to see this!

Now that she has been on stage, we told her "You are going to dance class" and before we finished the sentence the answer was "NO!".

A busy day in the life of Jr.

It was a case of bad planning. Daddy committing to take Jr. to a parade in Los Gatos with the school band without knowing that her dance school annual day program was on the same day!

She insisted on going to the parade inspite of the rain. Really didn't want to take a chance with the rain and get sick again, but you cannot deny a 10 year old when she begs. So off we went, and got wet in the rain and I had the added pleasure of walking back a mile and a half with a camera and saxophone hanging from my neck!

She thought it was worth it!

 This position of neck down and playing an alto-sax within a poncho had consequences for the second part of the day..

 The place was colorful and it was nice for folks who were sitting in shelter watching the parade.. not so for the kids or parents running alongside taking pictures!

 Came back home and had exactly one hour to get ready for her dance performance. We had a lot of help in the dressing up from our family friend and the end result was ?

Daddy tearing up seeing Jr. all grown up. This is the first time she is wearing the traditional dance dress instead of a paavaadai!

Had to rotate the picture by 15 degrees to make her look straight. She could not hold her neck straight..

She looked great. Just had to dance well..

She did all the steps well. The hands were good. The feet did their job, but...

She went through the motions. There was simply no smile. Even hindi movie heroines who are forced to dance in front of villains before the climax have better smiles than Jr.'s and that got her to face mommy's wrath for a good hour!

and daddy's advice session as well.. Daddy learnt early on in his ballroom dancing days that even if you falter with your footwork, a smile goes a long way with the judges! Granted this was not a competition and there were no judges but when your parents and extended family get to watch it in photos and video... there has to be a smile!

Next year, there will be a calendar system in the house that avoids such conflicts and doesn't push the kids to such extremes.. 

and we will have a smile before, at and after the performance! 

Sometimes I think we push our kids too much but then again, we got a lot more excercise compared to Jr. and the little one because we played outdoors all the time instead of sit in front of an iPad.

All said and done.. she did break our heart being sooo cute.