One singular sensation

The dance show was on Saturday evening. I spent the daytime doing the dress rehearsal and thinking “ohshitohshitohshitohshit”. I’ve been on stage with the dance school several times before but that was the “Dads Dance” which was always played for laughs and after some liquid muscle relaxant. Making a fool of yourself by cocking up was obligatory – our Riverdance was a sight to behold as we wore anything from flippers to hikeboots. Due to lack of available dads there was no band of motley fools this year.

This time it was serious and there were 10 other ladies on stage who were much better at tap dancing than me and I didn’t want to let them down. And I certainly didn’t want to disappoint Claire our dance teacher who has to put up with our special talents each week when we ask “can you put that on a whatsapp video so we can practice?” (which translates to an emergency 5 minute shuffle round the kitchen while getting dinner ready before the weekly dance lesson).

The dress rehearsal was interesting, to put it mildly. Organised chaos seemed to be the order of the day and giving the toddlers umbrellas had been a discussion point in the run up to the show as to how many injuries could occur. This paled in comparison to the dozen or so basketballs being bounced in random directions (not intentionally) during the High School Musical numbers. Some even remained on the stage. Still, it was too late to back out now, and hopefully it would be alright on the night.

The show itself passed off with only little niggles. There were a lot of frantic costume changes which left some pauses but otherwise it went well. One toddler dissolved into tears when her glass came unstuck from her tray during “Be Our Guest” which got the whole audience going, and all the basketballs stayed on the stage. Our dance passed off with only minor brain fades which was a miracle considering the disrupted rehearsal schedule and that we were dancing with hats too. It’s hard enough getting the left foot to do something different to the right foot let alone get the arms in on the act too.

I don’t know how Claire stays sane after having to organise the show (including all the routines).

As a surprise she gave each of us a medal this year – it will hang proudly alongside those I’ve got from all my running.

This Friday it is the Scout District Annual General Meeting. It’s the end of an era as our district is being merged so “Waterlooville District” will cease to be, and “Southdowns District” will take its place. Luckily trying to organise that lot will not be my problem as I’m taking a back seat at the moment. Still doesn’t mean that I don’t have to sew my badges on my uniform though…