Glad I Took That Stand

My last post was about taking a stand with Lauren's dance recital. I am so glad that I did. Let me fill you in on how Saturday's recital went. We arrived at 1:00 and I took Lauren to the dressing room. The auditorium doors opened at 1:30 and the recital started at 2:00. There were 37 dances performed and Lauren was number 19. After her first dance she changed into her second costume, threw a blanket around her since that was the rule if the girls wanted to come watch the show so their costumes weren't seen and came and sat with us. Intermission started a little bit after 4:00, was about 10 minutes long, and then Lauren's second and final dance ended at 4:40. We had to leave because she was due at a birthday party at 5:00. But, get this...after her second dance, there were still 20 dances left to go. I have a feeling the recital didn't end until about 6:00. A 4 hour long recital! And then they were all expected to do this again Sunday. Evan was about to go nuts with how long this thing was lasting, and Roger now understood why I did not want to do this again the next day. Not only that, but neither one of us were impressed with the quality of the dances.

Lauren has a friend in both of her dance classes that is also in Evan's school. We saw the friend and mom Friday the day before the recital at a school function and she told us how Wednesday's dance rehearsal had gone. Lauren had not been able to go because she had a fever and was throwing up. The rehearsal had started an hour late due to some technical difficulties. It was supposed to start at 5:00. Even with the late start, the mom told me that she and her daughter left at 11pm and there was still an hour of rehearsal to go. The rehearsal went until midnight! Are you kidding me? The mom went on to tell me that last year the rehearsal had gone on until 11:00. Her daughter was in public school last year and was so tired the next morning that the mom kept her home from school. What amazes me is the excuses this mom gave to support this dance company and all of it's recital craziness. When Roger was in the hallway after Lauren's last dance waiting on me and her, he overheard a couple of dads complaining about the rehearsal times each year. Again, here we have people not liking this but apparently only talking about this amongst themselves and not to the owner. Please people, take a stand. As for our family, it is so definitely time to find another dance company for Lauren.