June 10 and Lemonade

 

 

Wednesday night we traveled to the other side of the state to see our Ceci in her dance recital.  I mentioned at Christmas the Christmas Extravaganza this studio presents is quite professional, the sound, staging, lighting is all very impressive but compared to their annual recitals (there are so many dancers there are five different programs  over four days.  Your child/student dances at one of them) the Christmas one was a delight but nothing compared to the no-holds-barred end of year  program recitals.  Our Ceci was in four  different dances. 

This photo is grainy because I took it from far away in a dark auditorium but you get the idea. Ceci loves to dance, it's her thing and I was so impressed with her poise.  That's not something you tend to notice when the kids are running around the yard.

But this was a different night for everyone.  Almost through the first half of the show the lights went out. The stage went black, the music stopped, the auditorium had just emergency exits lighted.  Yet, YET on stage the group that was performing went on. We could barely see their legs moving, their arms wide as they finished their dance in darkness and silence.

The studio owners came on stage and said there was a power outage, please stay seated and we would be told what happened soon as they knew.  And that's what happened.  They tried to contact DTE, the energy company but couldn't get through.  Someone in the audience worked for DTE and  they knew who to call and did. We were informed. a car hit a pole.

And then this happened.  We were asked to hold our phones up, turn on the flashlight and a call was out for anyone who might want to sing a song.  And someone did.  And then, oh, my God,  up onto the stage climbed a 3 1/2 year old little girl to sing. Solo (that means all by her little self.)  She sang The Wheels on the Bus and after the first verse the entire audience was singing The Wheels on the Bus with her, phones giving her her spotlight.  I knew then we were in the company of professionals. 

Somehow the dance school kept everyone in the building, in their seats, happy.  No one complained, no one left, no one threatened this evening for our kids.  The dancers were all backstage, the littles being minded by the biggers, no tears, no panic. 

After maybe, maybe 30 minutes a few auxiliary lights lit the stage but the sound system still didn't work. So, something that looked like a boom box was hooked up to a microphone and the show went on. Those kids came out onto a semi lit stage dancing to their music to the roar of applause for their professionalism.   The show does indeed go on.

This was not the recital the Central City Dance studio planned but they proved last night they are indeed a class act and I am so glad our Ceci is in their hands.

Oh, and  exactly two hours after the lights went out, we stood to leave the lights came on.