Ballet and misc

I didn't comment more about the church situation this weekend because we found out that the church we were planning to visit wasn't having their 8:45 contemporary service due to some special thing they were doing and we wanted to see a typical Sunday. The other church is just starting a building campaign and we've been going through this with our current church practically since we joined four years ago. We plan to visit the 8:45 service at the one church this coming Sunday.


Today a lady from the Moscow ballet was at our dance studio. They do Nutcracker here (and a bunch of other places) each year and they use local dancers for snowflakes, party goers and some other parts. Anyone from any dance studio can try out and the try out studio changes each year. I saw the sign for the audition and encouraged Jasmine to try out. If you've been following this blog any amount of time, you know she has some special challenges. But we decided we'd just go and have fun trying out and if she made it great, if not, it would be a good experience.









Right before auditions she started crying because her neck hurt. Some of the incision has pulled open. Since the hospital is five hours away I am going to e-mail them this picture tomorrow and see what they say. They may just say that it has to heal naturally. She did not have stitches. They glued the incision. It seems like a really big incision to glue but I am not a plastic surgeon so he would know better than I would how to do things.











The audition was not at all what I expected. About 20 or so girls 7-10 years old were crammed together in a line. The moscow ballerina did some movements and then they did them. I'm not even sure if Jasmine did them because she was so crowded. I thought they'd call the girls out a few at a time and have them do some of their moves. But she did about three moves with the girls and then took four of them out of the line. Jasmine was in that group. They did about four more things and a bunch mroe were removed from the line (these were all snowflakes). Only the last few got to do much dancing. They were all dance company girls. The lady didn't know that but of course these are the girls who devote the most time to dance.






The good thing is that everyone got a part. Most of the girls Jasmine's size are snowflakes. A few of the taller ones have special parts. The Moscow troup brings all the costumes with them so part of the decision has to do with who will fit the costume. The snowflakes costumes are the smallest ones.

But Jasmine is NOT a snowflake. They called the girls out by # to tell them right away after only about ten minutes total what their part was. They called Jasmine (#9) first and said they had a special part for her. She would appear with the troup on the stage and wear a beautiful dress (Which I believe we supply, it's not one of the costumes). It is not a dancing part. She will either be carried by a ballet guy or ride in a sleigh. She is happy with that.

I asked our studio owner if they just made that up for her so she wouldn't be left out and she said that someone has that part every year. But I don't know how they pick that person. I know she could have been a snowflake but she was also really upset about her neck so the lady may not have thought she could do it. Or maybe there weren't enough costumes her size or it could just be they thought she'd be cute in the sleigh. It was a fairly small turn out. If there had been a large turn out, some girls would have been left out and I hate that. I am NOT a competive person. I hate when kids get their feelings hurt because they are slowest or left off a team or don't get a part.

Since Jasmine's part is not a dancing part we won't be going to all the rehearsals. At the same time, she won't gain the experience of dancing in it. But she will be a part of it and she plans to try out again next year. And she is happy with her part for this year.