First Twirling Performance

After a whopping five classes, Dorothy had her first baton twirling performance today.  I had figured that since she had just started, she would not be included in the show, but her teacher wanted her to give it a try for fun, so she did it.  Luckily, she did not have to remember her routine, since her teacher did it with her, just like in class.  We weren't sure if Dorothy would twirl or just stand there, but she did a great job.  It can't be easy to be so little and get up by yourself in front of a gym full of big kids and grown-ups, but she did.  After the contest, one of the judges I know said how impressed she was that she got out there at all.

Kevin and I each took a video of her routine.  Mine is closer, but shaky because I zoomed in so much, and because I was giggling because she was cute.  It was impossible to hold the camera steady.  Youtube steadied mine automatically, so it is much better than it was, so hopefully you won't get motion sick watching it.  Kevin's is much more steady than mine was, but from farther away, so it's harder to see what she is doing.  I'm posting both, so pick your poison.

In addition to the park district classes performing, this was an actual competition.  Dorothy's class, and her teacher's other park district classes did their routines, but it was mostly for the kids who have been twirling for a long time and are getting ready for some important upcoming competitions, like Miss Majorette in a couple of weeks.  We watched some X-struts, then got her changed into her costume.  Once she was dressed, she wanted to "go practice" like the big kids.

 I was impressed that she was actually doing some of her routine and was remembering it fairly well.

Her costume is one that I had leftover from when I was teaching twirling, and had picked up for almost nothing.  I added a few black and pink sequins to the black parts on the sides to give it a little extra something, but I already had those too.  I didn't have pink ribbon for her hair that matched, but I had black, so I added some pink sequins to the ribbons to make them stand out a little.  For costing nothing, it turned out really cute.

 Here's all the park district girls getting gathered up and ready.  Look how tiny she is compared to everyone else.

 Waiting while her teacher reviews with another class.

After they all did their routines, each class got to go up on the stage to get their award.

 She was completely thrilled with her first place ribbon.

After the competition, when we were in the locker room changing out of her costume, she noticed the trophies an older advanced girl had and asked about them.  I told her that those were the awards the big girls got for doing their routines by themselves that we had been watching and that if they had the most points, they earned a trophy.  The older girl and her mom overheard us, and the girl offered one of her trophies to Dorothy.  It was really, really sweet of her, but I declined it (and Dorothy hadn't noticed yet).  She is happy with her ribbon, and the trophy can be something to work toward if she wants to try competing sometime.

 I couldn't get her to look at me, but that's a pretty decent salute.

After she was done, she did  not want to take off her costume and watched all the big kids do their solos.  It was hard for her to sit still, but she also didn't want to miss anything.  In addition to watching from the stands, she liked going to the practice area to "practice."

 A lot of her practicing involved watching the other kids.

 It did give me a chance to play around with the new fancy camera Kevin got me for my birthday.  This was one of my favorite action shots, taken mid crazy-spin.

Two of the older girls that she watches after her class each week.  The one in blue is "her friend" and Dorothy follows her everywhere she can.  This was toward the end of the contest and they were starting to take down the results wall and she really wanted to help them, but wasn't quite big enough.  I had her wait with me, and she was able to take the score sheets from the advanced twirl-off up to be tabulated, and she felt very important.

Even though she was done by noon, we stayed until the very end.  I kept asking if she was ready to go, and she insisted that she wanted to stay.  Once it was over, and they were announcing some of the awards, she asked if there was going to be any more twirling.  When I said no, she immediately started to take off her costume.  I stopped her and we went to the locker room instead of changing right next to the bleachers.

I think she had a really good day and she says she wants to do routines like the big kids.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll give it a few weeks, then maybe over the summer, if she's still interested, we can work on her basic strut (marching in a square) and a very simple solo.