Gosh. So much and yet so little happened here. Things were moving along as planned, and I coughed up my tax return as a downpayment on her national competition. Neither of us have been to Disney World, so we were both fairly excited. She started on her foxtrot open, which she was going to be using as a Spotlight dance to the Pink Panther in May. I started rehearsals for a production of Sound of Music that I ended being the Assistant Director for, and put in way too many hours of time.
Right around the beginning of February, we also learned that Richard was getting a promotion that involved him transferring to our sister studio. We were really disappointed, but we did get a fantastic new instructor for Shara to work with, and she did (and does) continue to work with Matt. I will say that her new instructor, Daniel, is easy on the eyes.
Anyhow, this was around the time of signups for their big dance production (which just happened in June), but that we didn't participate in because all of our money was budgeted for nationals. At the end of February, we did the household consolidation, and got half of our stuff put into a storage unit. I just kept putting money into the kitty, until we got word that the amount I had budgeted and been paying off did not include her dance entries. I was pretty upset, and not at all sure I would be able to scrape up enough money to make it happen, even with help from her other relatives. The studio manager conferred with the owners and some of the other professionals, and sat me down for a chat at the beginning of April.
He told me that since Shara's end goal is not necessarily to be the world champion (not that she wouldn't be thrilled, and not that it wouldn't be excellent for her career), we don't need to put all of our financial eggs in one basket. He advised taking the time until she turns 16 to have her participate in all of the different types of events the studio offers, so that when the time comes for her to teach, she can truly speak with the voice of experience.
This meant I could relax a little bit about the nationals bill, and put the money we had already saved up towards two competitions in May (one Fred Astaire, one independent Dancesport), and instead of focusing on nationals, have her do a Showcase event in January, which would involve intricately customized choreography to a song of her choosing.
Along the way, she had her spotlight on May 9th.
Which meant she needed another costume.
We bought a pink coat dress, which I paid extra to have shipped expedited. It didn't arrive until two days after the event. The day before, we had to go out and find her a shirt she could wear with her smooth practice skirt. This is the only event she's had that I haven't been able to attend. I still feel guilty about it, since she went with her dad and Lita, lost a heel cap, psyched herself out, and managed to twist her ankle while she was dancing. I still think some of it was psychological. She was convinced she wouldn't do well and might hurt herself, and sure enough, she did. Mind over matter. Anyhow, I don't have any video, since I wasn't there, and she wouldn't let me have the video from her phone. She looked really cute, but I don't even have pictures. The main issue was that it gave her a lot of self-doubt right before she was about to hit a major set of events. She had competitions coming up one weekend after another, and she really needed to walk into them with her head held high and feeling really good about herself and her current level of ability.
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