Dance concert

Saturday:

The real estate agent got back to us this morning, the seller wants to go to auction which is only a week away now. Which is fine, at least we can be reasonably sure they're not going to sell to someone else in the meantime. So we've got two auctions to go to next Saturday; if we don't win our first choice luckily our second choice is auctioned later in the same day. I want to see that one again before I decide. And we'll also view any suitable new houses.

Most of the day was spent driving Jasmine back and forth for her two concerts today, and of course seeing the evening performance. When I dropped her off for the matinee I had to park a long way away because there was a lot of road works around the theatre blocking access to the main car park (we were warned there would be - I think weekend road work makes sense in most places but not in front of a theatre!!) so I spent some time walking around the area scouting out places to park later in the day. I found a "secret" spot that I think not many parents knew about so it was worth my trouble - we easily found a spot there for the evening performance. It was the most walking I've done in several weeks! And that walking was done during the pleasant daytime rather than late at night in the freezing it's-still-winter-here.

And in the evening we got to see the dance show. It was very good, the older groups were very slick and professional, the younger groups involved my daughter which made them entertaining, and there was one dance (ballet) when tiny little kids came out in the same white tutus as the big girls and danced with them. You should have heard the "awwww" when they came out! We didn't see any other dances with the tiny tots this year because they were only in the daytime show. When everyone came out for bows at the end I did a rough count and my best guess was about 250 students! And I think six of them were boys. No older boys at all.

Jasmine did really well, she was one of the better ones in her classes we (unbiasedly! lol) think. I was especially proud of how well she posed frozen before the music started, some of her classmates couldn't keep still. And she danced well.

There have been complaints this year (which I totally agree with) that the share of stage time was very unfair this year. The older girls studying dance fulltime had many very long routines (too long, if you weren't a parent, even though they were good) whereas for the first time the younger kids didn't even get a full routine. They would dance a bit then run off and another class would run on to continue it. One song might be shared between up to four classes! In the ballet they had a long routine but with every ballet class in the school - Jasmine was on stage for 22 bars of music! That sucked a bit. In past years at least each class had a whole routine. But I suppose the show went on a bit longer then. As it was, we were there until 10:30 which is very late for young children. Aiden drooped all through Act Two.

Complaints aside, it was a good night out and Jasmine loved it and seemed to have no qualms about how much dancing she actually did. And now she can get some much-needed rest.