Parents and Dance United

I got to attend the Observation Day for School of Oregon Ballet Theater yesterday.

It was really good for me to see a bit of how the school functions. Lovingly strict, disciplined. All business. Actually, it's quite to M's liking, this sort of structure. She's all business and highly focused when work is being done. She knows when to allow herself to get silly, too. Dance class? No silliness.

Normal SOBT rules stipulate that parents aren't to wait or loiter in the building. We drop children at the outside entrance, and pick them up outside as well. I always feel a bit like a groupie or an autograph hound haunting the theater stage door come pickup time. Even when we're there, we're not supposed to go past the gate at the lobby. So this was the first time I got to go behind the gate. Once I was in the center of the building, the rules for access started to make a LOT of sense. The space is well arranged for the dancers. The studio space and the central area let the dancers see each other and interact, inside and outside the separate dance studios. If parents just off the street were milling around in the central area of the building it'd be a huge distraction to the dancers as they work. I get it now.

As you might imagine, parents sat on chairs along one wall of the dance studio. The dancers were all positioned at four consequitive rows of barres. I'm guessing there were 40 students, of which five were boys. Instruction started without fanfare, introduction or a need to call students to attention. During class they went through drills, were quizzed on terminology, and practiced practiced practiced. About half of class was at the barre, the other half included some prances, and some other work the name of which I must admit that I don't know.

Then, class was over. Student discipline dropped from locked-and-loaded 9 on the scale to s restrained 7. Some children waved to their parents; all hugged the teacher in a circle hug. Then they quietly and quickly cleared the room and got their dance gear ready to go home.

Didn't look at all like our chaotic morning routine to leave the house, I must admit.

I also must admit that I couldn't have been prouder of M. She works hard in this class. She takes the instruction and correction very well. She seems to be in her element there; I'm delighted.

After class, I went to a company-related party. One of the local PR firms was celebrating 20 years and I was invited as a representative of Sunstone. So, I went directly from SOBT to 100 SW Main, just across the river. C and M changed clothes and headed over to the OBT performance Dance United, featuring visiting dancers from a number of ballet companies around the world.

At my party, I found myself next to Mayor Sam Adams, who stayed for about 15 minutes, I texted C that the Mayor was there. So imagine her surprise when, a few minutes after my text message, Mayor Sam Adams appeared on stage at Dance United to introduce the program! Laughing, C said she felt intimately connected to the Portland community at that moment! It was fun.

As a footnote, I've been told that my blog posts periodically show up on OBT's google news clipper searches. To date I've spoken my unedited personal opinion about SOBT, and will continue to do so.