You haven't lived until you have spent a Saturday afternoon watching Elementary Ballroom.
Let me set the scene: Mountain View High School gymnasium, with way more fans than the usual high school basketball game. 12 Elementary Ballroom schools represented (~200 dancers?). Parents of all of the kids. The kids are grouped into two sides of the gym (girls with roses in their hair and girls with daisies in their hair).
The competition starts with some required dances (Merengue, Fox Trot, Cha cha cha). Everyone dances their required "Heats" in front of a panel of judges. There is no tapping you on the shoulder if you're terrible, just notes taken down and submitted to the "panel." Then there are dances by the "featured couples".
Got the picture?
OK, now for the fun. Most of the boys don't really want to be there, so their expressions range from fright (no one wants to screw up, even if they don't want to be there) to disdain (girls still have cooties at this age, remember) to disgust ("I'm dancing when I wish I were playing sports"). I don't know what would get a boy to dance who doesn't really want to (of all of the parental battles to fight, that one seems close to last on my list just above "You must memorize the names of all of
The boys who DO want to be there are having a great time, though. The dances are usually lively and the music if fun.
So which ones were your boys: Frightened, disdained (is that even a word?), disgusted, or having fun?
Posted by: Jeanette | January 30, 2010 at 05:45 PM
I've seen his older boys... They are dancers!
Posted by: RHoffman | July 23, 2010 at 10:59 AM