DAY 144 - ARTISTIC EXPRESSION FROM A 9 YEAR OLD... AND HER DAD!

Day 144

Yesterday, my oldest daughter had her yearly school performance.  She goes to a school with an artistic vocation.  Half of the show was music and the other half was dance.   During the musical part of the show, the children presented, amongst other things, two songs they had written.   My daughter was chosen to recite the written text for one of them, before they began singing it.  The poem she recited had been written by two of her classmates and her.  It talked about their fear of war and their desire for it to disappear from the planet.

It was such a touching moment... to see my daughter up there, reciting a poem that she had partly written with such conviction.  It is such a source of joy for me to see my kids growing up and becoming independent and self-confident, with thoughts of their own.

However, in my eyes, one of the best part of the show happened during the dance portion of the performance.  The teacher asked for a volunteer parent to go and take the place of a child who was absent.  My husband, thinking that he was just going to be standing there, with kids dancing around him, got up.

And then, he was paired up with one of my daughter's classmates.  He had to perform a 17th Century baroque dance or if you prefer, a French noble style dance, as if he was in Louis XIV's court, attending a ball.  The scene was out of a slapstick comedy film, with him trying to follow the steps, being forced to jump from side to side, sometimes getting it, sometimes not.   For the 4 minutes that lasted the musical piece, I was in stitches, crying of laughter.  I wasn't the only one laughing.  I could hear my friend Karine, in back of me, laughing as hard as I was.

My daughter kept glancing at her dad, in disbelief, trying to keep a straight face. How fortunate we are that they made a dvd of the show.  Needless to say, we bought it.  We will keep it preciously.  Because I know that, although the memory of this event will undoubtedly remain in my mind forever, having a dvd to remind me of how incredibly funny that moment was, is sure to provide me with further moments of happiness in the years to come.