Dance, baby, dance!

Clap!  Clap!

Thunderous applause filled the theatre as Rachel took a bow with her fellow dancers.

No, it is not a dream.  Our girl was on stage, involved in a choreographed performance of a dance troupe for the first time.

It has been a year since she joined DancePointe and learnt baby steps to ballet.  Every Sunday, Yen would bring Rachel for ballet classes without fail, with Felix attending an Art class and Kayleen in tow.

It is the dance school’s practice to hold annual concerts / performances for all their levels at the end of the year.  It is a good idea as it gives young children a chance to perform in front of an audience, to showcase what they have learnt to eager parents.

The journey to get Rachel on stage this day has been tedious.  Not just for our elder girl, but for us - adults - too!  Nearing her performance in end November, we were asked to bring her for extra forty-five minute extra sessions on Saturday mornings with the rest of her classmates.  With myself already out of the equation (I work on weekend-day mornings most of the year), the task of bringing Rachel to lessons in Taman Jurong Community Centre fell on the shoulders of my lovely wife, or my mother when Yen is working.  Felix and Kayleen would tag along.

Now that I have no lessons in the month of November, I finally had a taste of how it felt like to actually bring Rachel for her sessions on both Saturdays and Sundays.  It was a little tiring!  Yen had to give up lazing in bed on Sunday mornings – it was not fun!  This somehow also meant that during these days / times that the children had extra programmes, plus that we could not go out as a family too.  Sigh; all for the children, I say!

We came to this final week of her full-dress rehearsal and actual day of performance at Cultural Centre at Republic Polytechnic.  I had to take Rachel to meet up with her ballet teachers alone as these happened on weekdays – I am still on my month-long break.  This gave me opportunity to be with Rachel alone, to converse with her.  Worried about her physical and emotional well-being, I spoke her about the steps of how to get some things done (*gasp*) alone, without a parent or teacher to give her almost a hundred per cent of attention most of the time.

She responded well, but I just could not help but feel apprehensive when I stood in line with her to wait for her board the bus for rehearsal.  Watching her stand in line from behind, the five-year-old whom I saw seemed to have really matured.  She seemed to know what was required of her, and sailed through the day without any problem (I would find out later).

I worried for her constantly throughout the day of her rehearsal.  We waited her return at Taman Jurong CC at 10.30pm.  Quite late for girls her age, I felt.  But their return was delayed and she did not appear until 11pm.  She was very quiet when she saw Yen and me, and that got me worried as she was not her usual bubbly self.  It was only later in the car that she started speaking to us, and when we reached home later, I finally set my mind at ease.

On the actual day of her performance, I sent her off to meet up with her teachers and left her soon.  Although the previous day had somewhat testified that she could manage on her own, I still could not put my heart to rest…

It was only until midway into Rachel’s performance that I saw her again.  She danced in the second of three acts, only for less than three minutes.  Hmmpf!  How true the loosely translated old Chinese adage: “Ten years’ preparation work for three minutes’ work on the stage”!  All that extra practice sessions attended – bore fruit to that few moments on stage for our little angel!  Still, she did not, at any time, look out of sorts during the dance she had and put in the same sort of energetic moves we had seen from her whenever she performed for audiences!  I was very proud of her that night!

The night ended late for her.  She was happy when we saw her during dismissal at the foyer, and though it was late, Rachel was still in high spirits.  We were encouraged by her performance and look forward to the next one she agreed to do – a violin recital in front of a small group of Daddy’s friends during Christmas!