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,
