Some things never change

Last night was belly dancing, and we have two more classes left before the big performance…. commence the freaking out.

To be honest, I am even more excited about it after last night. I’ll explain why. So if you have ever taken dance as a kid or teenager, you know how important placing is for the recital, the most coveted spots are in the front row, even better, front and center. I took dance for 8 years, and I was almost ALWAYS in the front row (except for point, I kinda sucked at point). Being in the front row means you are one of the best, you will be seen clearly by the audience, and you are there as a guide for the other girls in the back who might not have all the steps down. So the day of reckoning always came about half-way through the year, the instructor would take out her notebook and start in the front row on the left, and call each one of us to our spots. I can still remember the butterflies and anxiety right before she called my name. Not being in the front row would be the ultimate rejection and humiliation. After receiving your placement, there was the inevitable period of time when you would, of course, compare yourself to those that were closer to the center stage. “How did SHE get that spot, we’re both way better than her…”

Well anyways, last night someone finally brought up placement, and thank god because there were these two women who made it a point to stand directly in front of me whenever possible, it was getting pretty frustrating. We do a lot of moving around and traveling all over the dance floor, and people were ending up all scattered all over the place, and often very much in other dancers’ spaces. So being that it’s an adult class, the decision process for placement was a little different from back in the day. Basically it was, “you guys should probably be in the front, and how about you ladies over here, and etc. etc. etc.” So even though Betsy and I came into this class way behind everyone (Betsy wrote about it a while back), we are now both front and center, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I actually considered running home and calling my mom to tell her the good news, as I would have done back in 8th grade.