Confessions of a dance pusher
It wasn’t a shady deal in a parking lot where two cars pull up next to each other and try to act casual. It didn’t take place in an alley or in the dark corner of the park. The deals were all made via text, but I still felt like quite a … pusher. Not a drug pusher, though. A dance pusher.
The messages started flying early in the morning on the day registration opened for existing students of the dance school. Over the course of a few hours, I was popping in and out of group texts and individual texts — weaving an intricate web of plans involving weekday afternoon dance classes for six-year-olds.
Instead of just answering their simple question of, “What class/day/time is Charlotte doing in the fall?” I couldn’t help but try to lead them over to my side.
I might as well have been smoking a cigarette and casually leaning against a brick wall. Probably wearing a cool leather jacket and ripped jeans, too.
“You want the good stuff?” I’d say in a gravelly voice. “It’s all about lyrical. Have you heard about lyrical? Oh man, you’ve gotta try lyrical.”
Our daughter’s danced for three full years now, and many of her friends dance with her at the same school in town.
Until now, they’ve always been in ballet classes: Creative Movement when they were three, Pre-Ballet when they were four, and Primary Ballet this past year when they were five.
But now that they’re six, they can stick with ballet or wander down the rabbit hole to try OTHER types of dance. Jazz, tap, lyrical, hip-hop! Choices, choices, choices!
I knew all about lyrical because I had a bit of an obsession with watching Dance Moms — a reality show about the Philadelphia dance school that brought stardom to Maddie Ziegler. Our daughter had also watched it with me sometimes, and she loved the idea of getting to try a different style and “dance like Maddie.”
Her best friend had been toying with the idea of taking tap, but then I texted her mom a YouTube video showing the Top 10 Lyrical routines from Dance Moms. They watched the video together, and BOOM! She wanted to do lyrical, too. They signed up.
It *is* a pretty convincing video, I thought. It’s a beautiful style of dance — sort of a combination of ballet and jazz, with the most amazing leaps and turns. I bet other people would be interested, too. Hmmm.
(At this point in the story, I think I became the dealer who gets a little too confident and starts hawking their merchandise. “Psssst! You want some lyrical? It’s real graceful! You’re gonna like it. I promise. Hair-bows and flowy skirts for days!”)
By lunchtime, I’d texted the same video to five different friends with similarly-aged daughters, and four of them immediately switched from ballet or jazz to lyrical. Our daughter was already psyched to take lyrical, and now she has four of her very best friends in the same class with her so she’s ecstatic.
We’re all pretty excited for the first lyrical class, even though it’s almost three months away. I hope everyone loves it, since I’m the one who “sold” lyrical to half my social circle. If not, the girls can always try something new next year.
“… Hey, have you heard about acro-jazz? It’s really good stuff. Oh man, you’ve gotta try acro-jazz …”
2 Comments on “Confessions of a dance pusher”
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Heather's Handmade Life 
You’ll love lyrical, but nothing beats old school tap. Dance is great for boys too (my son is my dancer)… Has your son tried tap shoes? 🙂
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Oh I WISH my son would try dance. He did cheerleading for a year but he’s shyer now, and has never been interested in dance.
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