I love working at the front desk watching the dancers arrive, but Covid has brought big changes to dance. Days at the studio now have, for the most part, an empty lobby. Most dancers enter the studio directly from outside, so I see so few of them this year, but the same magic of dance class is happening inside those dance rooms.

Let me think back to “The Golden Years”, before March, 2020. Our studio lobby is full of dancers. Buns bobbing everywhere, boys in black ballet shoes and white shirts. Some dancers are serious, some are laughing and joking with others, some are just trying not to be late and a few are really shy and not sure they want to go into the room. New dancers arriving in August are sometimes shy, maybe a little scared, and unsure of themselves. As the weeks go on, these dancers get more confident and sure of themselves. Most will participate in the end of year recital and my goodness! I am backstage at the recitals and the dancers leaving the stage have a glow and excitement that is priceless. They have learned that all their commitment and hard work has paid off. They have performed as a team and what a joy they feel in their accomplishments.

Most will want to come back next year.  A few will decide that dance is not their biggest interest and may move on, but every dancer that leaves here knows more about themselves than they did when they started. I mean look at our more experienced dancers! They have such confidence! The poise a dancer carries on the dance floor will stay with them their entire life. The friendships they develop will also stay with them for life.

Then there are the parents.

I really love the parents, too. You parents are a big part of the dancer’s success. They succeed because you support them. You get them here, you get them home. You adjust meal times and sometimes bedtimes around dance activities.  You may think all you do is chauffeur them around, but the biggest thing you do for them is … support them. They enter the dance classroom alone without you, they learn and grow and try and learn some more. They alone will decide whether to continue dance for years or let other activities take priority. Your support lets them decide who they are. They make their own decision about how much to practice, whether they want to be good or GREAT, which you really can’t change that much. But you CAN, and you mostly do, let them grow up. 

It’s pretty hard sometimes. My daughter started dance when she was very young.  She loved everything about dance. We had to rearrange schedules to be sure we could get her to the many classes she wanted to participate in. In the beginning we weren’t sure how serious she would be about dance.  But she loved it and dropped some other activities to allow for it, but we never knew it would end up a career for her. We were just there for her and she made her own decisions. Your daughter or son (or all of them) will too. So just give them some space and allow them to make their own decisions.

Oh, and be sure to try on that costume AS SOON AS YOU GET IT.  But I digress.

Come see me sometime! - Marianne