My First Blog!

Welcome to my Blog! For a person who has always kept a journal an online one is pretty much my dream. I will apologize now for the constant changing of colors, fonts and backgrounds but it will take me a while to get it just how I want it:) If you choose to follow this blog, you will get email updates whenever I make a new entry so that you can keep up with me on all my many travels! To begin...

For those of you who didn't know, Ricky and I went to Louisville last weekend for my new niece, Alex, because she had her first dance recital. I remember dance recitals and the ones for little kids usually consist of cute costumes and girls spinning around bumping into each other and missing their cues. That was there, but we had no idea we would be in for such a treat during the entire recital.

To start, we're driving through Louisville passing all kinds of cute houses with nice yards, until we cross over into this scary, scary section of town that were literally over the railroad tracks. At this point, "G", (Ricky's Dad) suggested we all lock our doors if they weren't already. In the midst of scary junk yard dogs, graffiti and hobos emerged an old middle school (Western Middle School). You could tell that it was a really beautiful school years ago but now it's run down and in pretty bad shape. (Note: Alex does not go to this school, this is just where her Mom enrolled her in after school dance class.)

After we got parked and went inside, Ricky and I were shocked at all the homemade posters that read "Are you ready for sex??" in scripted cut out construction paper letters.

To accompany these posters were pictures of various manifestations of STD's, screaming babies and large teen tummies with stretch marks on them. I remember Ricky asking, "Um...isn't this middle school?!" but apparently things have changed since we were 11.

The recital was in a big old auditorium and it was PACKED. There were rows of people standing but thankfully, we got seats. I was privileged to sit behind a woman with AWESOME hair. (See first attached picture.) I'm not really sure how she maintains this but it was very fun to look at for two hours.

When the recital began, Alex did a very good job twirling and pouting at the same time during the first number (Rhinoceros Tap) because she didn't get to dance by her friend. She was still very cute in her costume and went on to wear several other adorable outfits. There's nothing like glitter and taffeta to make a little girl happy! I was excited to see the "intermediate group" take the stage for a "jazz" performance. They were a little older (7-9) so I was expecting some pretty decent little kid dancing. Um..wrong. The music started up and it was your typical hip hop beat. The girls were dancing around while the crowd cheered. Then the music changed and "The Stanky Leg" started playing. If you've never seen or heard the Stanky Leg, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czR1yxKfhUc). Dancing children started bumpin' and gridin' on each other in a large pack in the middle of the stage while doing the Stanky Leg. There was a series of girls going across the stage doing some booty poppin move that I, at 26, could not begin to recreate. A mom behind me yelled "Get it Alexa!" when it was her 8 year olds turn to pop it. Needless to say, if it were my daughter I would have ripped her off the stage. I think I was in shock because I just looked for pictures of this and I don't have any! I will check with Ricky, though.

The emcee was dressed in traditional African garb, well, it was supposed to be anyway, and kept spending waaaay too much time trying to announce each group. We were all THRILLED when we heard her announce the special guest stars---a local gospel choir---who sang while an older troupe of dancers did a similar booty shaking routine to a song about Jesus. Apparently Jesus likes to pop, lock and drop it. The last number we suffered though was "Advanced Tap" (note: the skill maintained by the advanced tappers was the same as Alex's class, they were just bigger) to Disco Inferno. No, not the original song from the 70's, the club hit by 50 Cent. It was terrible to say the least.

Although Alex was extremely cute and seemed to enjoy herself I am still in shock at what is now acceptable for young girls. Dance is a wonderful pastime for both genders and as an art form, it should be respected and done with grace and skill. I hope my niece grows into a talented prima ballerina.