Dance

I'm so nervous.

Today, my dancing dancers are dancing! I hate it when I prepare and prepare, I choreograph and teach, correct, smooth it out and then the day comes - it's been a very long time since one of my groups has actually performed. So today is like coming back from the dead - it feels like it too. There's a world of concerns waking up, memories coming back and I feel like I just woke up in the middle of all of it.

I think this is something that every dance teacher faces. The butterflies are much bigger when your students are on the stage than actually being up there - you are responsible for what happens, but in a way you have no control over it. One of them could stop and do the chicken dance in the middle of the song. I don't think that's going to happen, but the tiny mistakes that I correct everyday could decide to come out in all ten of them at once and then we'd face chaos on the stage. In front of at least a hundred people.

Should you come tonight, I will be the lunatic in the front waving my arms and screaming for the music to stop.

The thing is, I love picking the perfect song, choreographing, dancing it out. I even like teaching them sometimes. But my expectations for the kids are always high and I find, after a few weeks, that they cannot do everything that I can. Then, about 3/4 of the way through teaching the dance, I realize that, sooner or later, lots and lots of people are going to have to see our work. Oooooh, shoot ...

It's time to man up a little. I consider this my mission, even my dream! Thinking of the ten kids going up tonight, I'm sure they're nervous too. I might not be a missionary (just a missionary kid), but maybe it will be my four minute ministry to remind them to worship while they dance, then I'll sit in the front row, trust them and smile.