Proud mumma

WARNING: this post has nothing to do with the cottage. 

You've been warned.

This past weekend was our penultimate dance competition. It took place at York U, and was held by the Ultimate Dance Connection dance competition. It was a tough, tough weekend. Most of the routines we saw received a Gold mark, which is a very average dance score, if you're not familiar with dance competition scoring. It's about as exciting as a B- on a term paper; you're relieved it wasn't worse, but it's nothing to crow about.

The princess danced in two numbers each day; First Tap

and Hip Hop

then Acro

and Jazz

Finally, on the Sunday, they held a competition within the competition, specifically for Ballet. They had ballet experts as judges for the ballet portion and separate overall high-score trophies available for ballet. Ballet is a notoriously tough discipline. It's technically exacting, judges are harsh, and you almost never see an overall awarded to a ballet routine as a result. That they created ballet overalls for this competition was a pleasant change from the norm.

The girls started out well earning a diamond (one level up from Gold) for their tap number, but everything else managed no better than gold. Stellar routines at our studio that have won overalls at numerous prior competitions received gold and no further recognition. They were pretty demoralized.

On ballet day, their group of eight received a gold, and it was so close to being a silver that I was biting my nails about the princess's ballet solo which was next. The junior girls (the age group above the princess) from our studio received a silver for their routine. She was competing against 3 other girls in her category, some of whom train at a ballet-only dance school.

She came on stage like a pro, danced elegantly, and when they accidentally shut her music off part way through her routine, she kept going. When the music came back on, she hadn't missed a step in her choreography and was perfectly on time. The other girls in her category danced after her. And then we waited. Two long hours we waited for the ballet awards ceremony to take place.

As the awards ceremony got underway, I quietly hoped she at least got better than silver. The fourth place girl was announced. She received a Gold. Yes! Better than a silver! The third place received a diamond - and it wasn't the princess! I knew she was in either second or first, and had at least earned a diamond score. Hooray! When second place was announced and we realized she took first place in her category I was overjoyed and so immensely proud of her and all of her hard work.

Once the individual awards had been handed out, it was time to announce the overall awards for high scores. When they announced that she had the highest score amongst all of the 9 and under age category ballet solos (both novice and experienced dancers), I was dumbstruck. Finally she had a trophy of her own to bring home after watching her friends clean up at the earlier competitions.

Her instructor was overjoyed and all of the dance moms and other dancers offered her heartfelt congratulations. She radiated happiness and kept asking her friend to pinch her, "If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up!" she told me.

She now sleeps with her trophy.

♥

We later learned that the studio came 2nd overall (out of 13) in the whole competition, and a massive trophy now adorns the waiting room at the studio.