Dance Fest 2010

WARNING: LONG POST

Last January we heard a small announcement about dance practice for a dance festival in July. I was so excited, "Emily, come on it will be fun." I said. "I don't dance" she said. I pulled rank and drug her to practices for six months. I even took her once when she had a concussion. It turned out they were doing the Charleston. Emily had a partner that dropped out about March, "Don't worry we will find you a partner." OK, it took until about two weeks ago, but her second cousin, Bradley Whiting, ended up coming up for the summer and was awesome for stepping up.

Then we needed a flapper dress, so with confidence I ordered one from ebay. It was awful, so we headed to get a pattern, fabric, and fringe. On the way home Emily and I had the following conversation:

Me: Emily, the pattern says it's an easy one hour project. Do you think I can do it in an hour?

Emily: No

Me: Do you think I could do it in four hours?

Emily: No

Me: Do you think I should call Sister Everett?

Emily: Yes

So, I called Sister Everett and she said yes, she came and took measurements I didn't even know existed. Then she worked and worked and produced an amazing dress, we can't thank her enough.

Finally the day of the 5 stake multi dance festival started. It was all day Friday with practices and a sock hop that ended at 10 pm. So by the time we got home and got her hair into rag rollers it was late...and she had to be back in at 6:50 am. She had some more workshops (it was a youth conference, so there were a bunch of classes on dating!), dress rehearsals and finally the show started at 5 then again at 7. Each stake had a different era, Grand Junction - 20's, Montrose - 40's, Meeker - 50's, Moab - 60s, Grand Junction West - 70's, with a big finale of around 700 kids dancing to We are Family!

Emily has allowed me to curl her hair exactly twice in her life, once when she was 4 and a flower girl for a wedding, and for this. I'll take what I can get, but she did get asked several times "Is that your real hair?" And Erik said Emily's hair, "Freaked him out".

Anyway, it was an awesome festival. The dancing was amazing, the place was packed and it was so much fun. After we got home I said, "Emily, this is the point where you say, "Mom that was awesome, I had so much fun. You were right, THANK YOU'" She replied, "I had fun, thank you for making me go to dance." OK that was close enough.