I'm so proud...

Of my daughter, Shannon who is a senior in high school. Her school has a tradition that has been going on for 51 years of a dance competition they call Blue and Gold. Over 100 students per team are involved and the effort these kids put in is amazing. There are 3 primary groups per team. Decorations, Props and Costumes and Dance. Among the dance group are 3 more sub-groups, Modern, Jazz and Calestenics. The kids can participate in more than one group or even sub-group. Each dance sub-group is made up of about 25 dancers. Every year a different theme is chosen for each team. One year my daughter's team's theme was Pirates. Other themes have been Greece, Indians and Africa. This year her team's theme was China. They are supposed to tell a story (one that they make up) via the decorations, props and dance.

The amazing thing about this is that it is all done by the kids. The entire gym is decorated in giant painted panels, props and costumes are built by hand, the music is scored and the dances choregraphed by the kids alone.

Shannon has participated in Blue and Gold every year since she started high school. As a freshman she chose the Blue team and has stuck with that team every year. And every year, disappointingly, Blue would lose by a point. It got to the point I swore the damn thing was rigged! These kids put their heart and soul into this event, from March until May, they practice everyday after school for a couple of hours and weekends too.

Last year, after the competition, she was asked by the departing seniors to be a co-Captain of the Modern team. This is quite a responsibility, not only does she have to score the dance, she has to choreograph it, organize practices, tweak the dance when needed and then also participate in another dance as well as the entrance and closing dances! All this and keep up with her school work! And she has a job! Whew!

The competition starts on a Thursday, which is non-scoring and then they get scored on Friday and Saturday's performances. The event is made up of Entrance,Cal,Modern,Jazz and Marching. All the girls (yes it is 99% girls with the occasional brave boy in there) participate in the first and last event. The entrance is the most grueling, it is a non-stop 30 minute interpretive dance that tells a story based on the given theme. 10-15 kids will enact a scene in one section of the gym while another group is setup in the darkness on the other side, and it flips back and forth. Cal is a dance with calestenics moves scattered throughout the 15 minute segment, Modern is a slow graceful dance, Jazz more upbeat and quicker and Marching is similar to a marching band.

I went to the competition on Thursday and Saturday but not Friday. There are a limited number of tickets, so on Friday members of my family went to watch her. After watching Thursday's performance I told her that if Blue doesn't win by 10 points, it's a scam! Other than Entrance, Blue's dances and execution were SO superior to Gold's that there was no comparision.

Friday night, right after the scores were announced, I got a call from Shannon, she was SO exicted. "Daddy, my dance got a perfect score, a 20!". I was SO happy for her, so proud! All that hard work from her paid off. After the first night, Blue was leading by 1 point.

Saturday night was more of the same, Blue's execution was flawless and the dances and the music were perfected suited to the theme. It was wonderful to see the kids jump up and down in delerium when the scores for each section were announced. To see Shannon burst into tears of joy when her Modern dance got another perfect 20 almost made me cry, I thought my face might split in half I was smiling so hard!

When it was all done and finished, Blue got perfect scores each night for Cal,Modern,Jazz and Marching. The only thing Gold won were Props and Entrance. BLUE FINALLY WINS! Apparently they broke a 7 year Gold winning streak.

I am so proud of Shannon for sticking it out on the Blue team for 3 staight years of losing and then working so hard as a Captain, getting two perfect scores and winning the title!