Nutcracker Recab

It is amazing how one extra thing on your schedule can throw life into a crazy loop.

They had practice at our local studio, then rehearsal at another studio, then rehearsal at the location and dress rehearsal before their 4 performances for the audience at the Township Auditorium.

Warning, lots of drama follows!

There was a live orchestra.

Ohhh, the drama. On the dress rehearsal night Larissa came out in tears. She had been corrected but in a mean way. She didn't even understand the correction. The owners daughter was mad about Larissa's kicks. I had taped the performance and really didn't see what she was talking about. I messaged it to her asking what corrections she needed to make because she didn't know. This led to a message from the owner telling me to go through her. Keep in mind her daughter teaches there and is working on her masters. I went to her because she saw it. She asked me to send the tape and I did. I simply asked for what correction did she need to make. I was told that maybe Larissa wasn't ready for this type of dance if she couldn't take correction. I simply asked again, please tell her what the correction is so she can correct it. Got another unhelpful response about why cant she just take a correction. I replied that all she wanted was to correct it but didn't know what the problem was. Finally she said to me it wasn't the kicks, it was on the wheel.  Hmmm, ok. Thanked her and told Larissa to tighten up the wheel and to gain back her positive attitude and go enjoy her experience. She was loving dancing on the stage.

The next day I had a woman come up to me and tell me that it upset her the way they talked to my daughter. She said it was uncalled for and that her kicks were to best so she didn't understand why the lady was talking so mean to her. Hmmm, her kicks. We let it drop. Larissa went back with a positive attitude but unfortunately me messaging what I did led to bad feelings with the daughter. She made lots of little comments when Larissa was around trying to put her down and all talk about being the adult. I told Larissa that when someone says that they are being an adult typically what follows is not so adultish. Let it drop, wipe it off and go enjoy your experience. She did.

After the second performance two girls came out crying. They were corrected on several things and were upset. They started to huddle outside complaining about everything and I could feel everyone feeding off of each other so we left. Larissa had been doing well so I didn't want her pulled into it. That night the moms messaged me (they never have before) and the girls messages Larissa (they never had before). They were trying to convince us to quit since they knew that Larissa had been upset a few days before. She had no interest in quitting and I wouldn't have let her quit the show. The dance needed a certain number of dancers to match up and people purchased tickets to watch the show. They had practice before the next performance and the girls did not show up so new dancers came in and they reblocked the dance. I have not heard from the moms since and the girls deleted Larissa from their social media. Then they sent threatening messages to the owner! Crazy, it was all crazy.

We are used to some of this especially before recital when the stress level was high. This was like a recital on steroids. Lots of stress.

The family went to the last performance. I had watched all of them as I was the driver.

Larissa wants to do it again next year, she loved dancing on stage. It sure was a wild experience and she got to work on maintaining her composure when everyone around her is going crazy.