Challenge Embraced

Who woulda thunk it that I would one day have to print a retraction regarding one of my blogs (from last week)?  But M1 has explained her case to me that she is supposed to be in Grade 5 ballet next year and not Grade 6.  It’s M2 who is sort of a year ahead.  Most of M1’s teammates finished Grade 3 together.  Then one of them, Sean (probably the best dancer on M1’s team), skipped Grade 4 and went straight into Grade 5 so that she could try out for the National Ballet School of Canada (Unfortunately, she didn’t make it).  Several of M1’s teammates (or their moms) also asked to skip Grade 4 to “keep up” with Sean.  There are still dancers on M1’s team that are in the same ballet grade as her – this year and next year.  Sorry if this is confusing, but that’s how it was explained to me.

Also, about embracing challenges, M1 assures me she does plenty of that.  And I do agree with her.  Here are a couple of examples.

M1’s strongest dance style has always been Acro, which is like dancing with gymnastics (has lots of flips and flexibility moves).  So her solos have always been Acro or Open (combination of Acro and Jazz).  This past year her instructor wanted her to compete in Jazz – to broaden her skills and challenge her.  I remember I was against this because I felt she should compete in her strongest category.  (Maybe I’m back to thinking like I was a teenager and wanting a trophy.)  In her age group, there were already 2 or 3 girls better than her at Jazz.  (I say 2 or 3 because one girl is in a different age group depending on the competition.  There should be standard international dance rules!  But that’s a discussion for another day.)  So it would be tough for her to win any overall awards.  Most competitions give an award for first in the category, then top 3 overall (Jazz, Acro, Tap, Ballet, etc. combined).  But she’s not even top 3 in her own studio.

But M1 agreed to do a Jazz solo and she worked hard at it.  As I watched her rehearse, I saw that her Jazz skills were improving and her legs were so straight.  Then two of the girls who were stronger than her did solos in other categories, so there was only one from our studio that M1 had to beat.  For a few years now this girl, Marion, was regarded as the best Jazz dancer on M1’s team.  M1 was nervous to compete against her but as I watched them rehearse I felt that M1 improved so much this year she could actually beat Marion.  I am not a certified dance judge but I am a biased father, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

When it came time for competition, M1 beat Marion 5 times out of 5 (one time Marion had an injured ankle).  M1 also came in first in the category once but did not win any overall awards.  I was very proud of her performances, and would have been even if she did not beat Marion.

A second example is when M1 was asked to be part of a special Acro group this past year.  The group would consist of the top 2 Acro dancers aged 15, 13, and 11.  So a team of six and the way dance rules work, you take the average age and they compete in the 13 year-old category.  M1, being the youngest of the group was very nervous about joining this team, especially because the two 15 year-olds were top dancers in the studio.  She had danced with one of the 13 year-olds before and obviously the other 11 year-old was her regular teammate (Ellen).

M1 did join and I was very excited about this team.  To me it was like an All-Star team, selected by the instructors.  I also thought it would be a great opportunity for M1 to learn about dancing and about teamwork from the older girls.  As I watched them rehearse throughout the season I was worried that the older girls were not as committed.  M1 and Ellen were really excited to be dancing with the big girls but I guess it made sense that the older girls would want to focus more on dances in their own age group rather than this one where it might seem like they were babysitting.  However, my fears were unnecessary as when it came time for competition, the veteran savvy of the older girls shone through.  They all danced beautifully.  In fact, it was M1 who made the most mistakes.  But they were little mistakes that didn’t hurt the team.  They won first overall in 4 of 5 competitions!

Big Oh