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January 15, 2006

The Last Dance

June 15, 2009 07:33 PM UTC

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Yesterday was the last dance. The last dance recital my daughter had at the studio where she studied dance for 8 years. Eight years of recitals. The studio where she studied is not just ANY studio, but her aunt's studio, my husband's sister, which she opened on September 10, 2001.

Yes, the day before the day we all remember with such pain, the day we celebrated the opening of something wondrous - my SIL's dance studio. We posted flyers all over town and I was going to submit an article for the local paper before news of dance studios became less important than global tragedy. Rightfully so.

That year, I also took tap and jazz with my daughter. We practiced in the kitchen. My daughter was 10 and soon would blossom into the woman of 18 she is today, a dancer who excels in tap, jazz, ballet, ballet pointe, modern, lyrical, hip hop and flamenco.

No, she did not take all these this year, but each year she took most of these. Her schedule was 4 times a week around dinner time for 1 to 2 hours, including Saturday and including a month during the summer.

This year, my daughter was Captain of the Dance Team, the Dance Team that danced in the pre-game show for the Boston Celtics one night this past April, a feat they have accomplished for the last 4 years.

The Dance Team at the Studio also danced before Senior Citizens in Nursing Homes and other groups.

My daughter has been a busy bee, and has also been enrolled in a special foreign language program on Wednesday nights for the past 8 years, learning Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish and French.

In 2005, my daughter, husband and son spent two weeks in Tokyo on a homestay with the global foreign language program, a program started in Japan but has a base here in town when the current Empress of Japan, Masako, was studying at the high school here.

Last summer, my family spent two weeks in Shanghai, also on a homestay with Shanghai members of the foreign language program.

My daughter will go to art school, majoring in fashion design come September, and will be taking a dance program, (not her major), but as a side interest.

At the recital yesterday, my lovely daughter was in 7 numbers in 90 minutes out of the total of 24 numbers.

She had a pointe solo, danced a modern dance number , one in tap, jazz, but my favorite by far was the pointe number she did with three other members - Fashion Week, in which each dancer made their own ballet costume in a rather avant garde style in pink and black, then appeared on pointe during the entire number strutting up and down as if they were runway models.Â This was done to avant garde music.

The studio had students from 3 years to adult, with one woman who appeared in recitals most other years, a woman now in her 80s.

Tears and flowers, flowers and tears were presented at the end of the recital.

We then drove a few blocks to the studio, where we partied the next several hours, with pot luck dishes in salads, tacos, nachos, pasta, meatballs, fruit, brownies, cookies, and Rice Krispie Squares my daughter and I made.

Not to mention all the beer and wine and soda for everyone.

The tiny studio, brightly painted in pastels, with paintings and photographs of dancers adorning the walls, was full to capacity with dancers, friends and parents.

We hated the see the evening end.

Next year, it will be on to other events for us.

Donna Summer, The Last Dance