Costume time!

It was costume week at the dance school this week!  This is Lissa as a flower.  She is also a tiger, which is equally cute and her hip hop number is the evil witch's guards.  All of them are cute as can be.

KC is a farmer, one of the evil witch's guard, his ballet number is "glinda's magic" which is an cream colored top with poet sleeves and long black pants, and jazz finds him an "emerald city kid."  The dance studio always does a production that is part theater and part dance, so it is more entertaining than the average recital. As you probably guessed, this year is the Wizard of Oz.  KC has also signed up to be in the final production dance so he is going to be busy with rehearsals for sure.

Lissa has all ready decided that she will drop all but hip hop next year.  She is really a dancer for the sociability of it and would rather spend Saturday mornings in a bit more leisurely fashion and perhaps sign up for swim classes.  KC is horrified that she wants to give up the ballet/tap and jazz combo class.  He quite rightly knows that ballet is a real core to a successful dancer. What he can't wrap his head around is that Lissa doesn't care about being a great dancer. She is there to have fun. He is there because it is a driving passion in him.

My boss was asking me last week if KC's dance love was a "nurture" or "nature" thing in my opinion.  She knows that my mom and my aunt had dance schools and that I danced all the way through school.  The thing is though, that I never suggested dance to KC. KC is the one who drove that train right out of the station.  He started dancing once he finally decided to walk and just never stopped.  Whether it was making up tap dances from his own mind or flitting around with scarves to classical music, it was really all him.  Somewhere in his biological family someone has a love of dance and a passion and ability for it.  Frankly I suspect that both of those things in him far surpass my abilities. I was a good dancer, but never great.  I didn't care enough.  I wasn't hungry for it.  He is genuinely committed to the core. He also has a sense of color and costume style and is not shy about voicing his opinions. I am blessed that the dance school values that input and allows some of the modifications he feels are important on his costuming.

But I have had several long conversations with him about how Lissa has to be allowed to find her own passions. Hers could be swimming, or basketball or any number of things and she can and will be allowed to explore and find her own passion.  I think he gets it now--at least gets that she has the right to do something else besides dance.  He just can't figure out why she wants to!