CDA Christmas Performance

Ok... Here we go! So Christmas Break officially began when the Creative Dance Academy had their christmas show. Normally the Christmas show consists of only the dancers with their own choreography. The teachers don't have to do choreography... they can if they want, but the show is basically giving the students a chance to choreograph and perform on their own. Last year I did some dances, but this year I decided to opt out because I didn't have enough time to prepare for them, and things were crazy with Lilly and everything, so I decided to take the easy way out. Well, A week and a half before the show Andee (owner of CDA) asked me to do dances for ALL of my classes... uhhhhhhhh seriously?? Apparently there wasn't enough students to make a whole show. So... I had two thursdays and one tuesday to do dances. That's pretty much ridiculous! So I decided to do the big long 6 minute waltz of the flowers from the Nutcracker and just give each one of my classes a piece of the dance. Which means that there was about 20 girls in this one dance. It was pretty crazy. In class all the girls had the dance down by the end of the first practice, and they could even do it with out me assisting them at all. But when we got on stage, it was like nothing had ever happened... girls were missing their cues... going at the wrong times... completely forgetting what was coming next.. it was a mess, so I pulled all the girls into the studio next to the stage and practiced a few times. When it came time for the performance, I had never seen them do so well! It was great!! I was very proud that they were able to pull it off, but it was still VERY frustrating because it could have been so much better. I love teaching at that studio, but I have never had enough time to actually prepare something! Every spring they do these recitals, but they are always themed, and I'm always the last one to know about the theme, so by the time I hear about it, all the good choices are already gone, and I have to make up something weird in like a month (if I'm lucky). Like last year the theme was "elements of the earth." There are only 4... which were taken... so I had to make up stuff... Lightning, Snow... and I had almost 3 classes to prepare. See, the thing that really bothers me isn't the fact that I don't have time to create anything really cool, it the parents... I mean, they spend all this money on lessons for their children, and I feel like they are a little bit jipped! And not only on the dances... but like, the costumes... All these parents, last minute, had to go out and buy a leotard! I just don't think that it's fair to ask that of the parents.. So this next semester I'm going to start early, and I"m not going to wait for Andee to tell me the theme or anything... I'm going to find costumes before the semester starts, and send notes home to all the parents, so that they can plan on them, and start to do the dance in a couple of weeks... and I dont really care if it doesn't go along with the theme... I should know the theme already! (Funny story... I was talking about this with my oldest student, and she knows the theme already... HOW COME I DON'T!!!) Anyway, Like I said, I'm taking matters into my own hands this semester, because these girls and their parents deserve to get what they are paying for!!