My daughters are dancers

Dear Bloggers,

For the last two months I’ve been spending my Monday afternoons at my daughter’s dance recital. For most dads, this is brutal – enduring hours of 8-year-olds in skirts, hundreds of twirls, jumps and gyrations. In my case I was particularly apprehensive because given today’s hip-hop society, I would have to endure hours of noise accented with either profane language or bleeps.

The recitals were a showcase in good music, with kids dancing to the music of Die Twa with the song Fûgels (Frisian song from two guys called those two who were actually there and sang this beautiful song.) My youngest daughter performed on K3 with Lollipopland, furthermore there was the song from the Rednex, called the spirit of the hawk I was impressed by the musical knowledge of these 10 year olds, Identity from the Robot Boys and the Drill was performed by the girls that are in their adolescent years and struggle with being in between girl and woman identity, 

my eldest daughter danced on Vanessa Mae’s Ragas Dance and the adults group danced (Im)perfection from Byon Kay and Ori Lavi and of course the surprise act that was performed by some of the first dancers who did an act from the Lion King. There were throwbacks to the top artist in the Netherlands Marco Borsato with Droom, durf ,doe en deel, the DJ kept the atmosphere right with playing Triggerfinger, Michel Teló and Ed Sheeran.

They even dipped into the obscure, when the gymnastics used the song Anthoon aus Tirol (obscure to 75 percent of the population, at least as it links to the drunk behavior in the ski resorts and the Tiroler soft porn from the 70’s). I heard a few hip-hop songs but I enjoyed almost every performance.

There were even a few artists that I had never heard of like Byon Kay and Ori Lavi and the Robot Boys and the Drill. And how Marco Borsato’s “Droom, durf, doe en deel” had eluded me all this time is embarrassing. I have some work to do.

Oh yeah. The dancing was pretty darn good. Am I officially a dance dad?

Last week my two girls performed in their annual dance recital. Aside from a dislike of some musical choices – coupled with the fear that one of my daughters would be dancing on them – I actually enjoyed the performances. There is usually very little hip-hop, and at times, a am awarded with discovery of some unknown music.

And oh yeah. The dancing’s good too.

This year was a tribute to the dance teacher Miss Marjanne who is with giving dance classes, the kids feel it like a little bit of losing her. (that still sounds weird, doesn’t it?). And it was a musical retrospective of her life – from “The Lion King” through her time with the dancers from then and now. 

It was all there, it really gave me some goosebumps when they all were culminating and the entire groups were participating in the now for whoever has seen it, the iconic “final” dance. As every dancer had written down the memories about the dance teacher their voices were recorded on the music and one by one they danced away from the stage. When I heard my eldest daughter speak and saw her dance, I could not hold my emotions back and cried a few tears. It was overwhelming and astonishing there was a real love glow.

A family friend brought her 8-year-old son to the recital. He came just to hear the music and was exited by almost every song as he knows of course my daughters, he was watching with an open mouth their performances. And that’s when I realized that music that continues to transcend generation. Granted, most of the music that the younger kids enjoyed was from K3 as they all grew up with it. That makes my job of exposing them to good music so much easier.

The dance groups perform at competitions throughout the year, so those performances were also included in the recital.

In a time where it would be too easy to resort to the latest hip-hop flavor or Ke$ha single, it’s refreshing to see creativity and melody taking center stage. And it warms my heart to think that some young people are being exposed to this at the local dance studio.

The Old Sailor,