Do you mind if I take a few minutes to brag? Oh, it’s not about me; it’s about some heroes I know. They’re MY heroes, so I feel the need to brag.
Most of you know that after this season, in June, I’m laying aside a lifelong, fulltime career to pursue more writing and other passions. It’s also because, after all these years my body finally hurts enough to think twice, and I don’t want to die at the barre at one hundred years old without ever having done the things I know I am still meant to do.
In light of the current events in this world, this closing season is nothing like the way I had always pictured it. Because of COVID-19, the company and studio are closed through most of this season. I had to cancel the company’s spring performing season, and the studio’s student performance is going to be drastically modified. I wanted to give the dancers more. I wanted to give my best; I wanted to finish well.
Like everyone else these last couple of weeks, I have had lots of time at home without being distracted with a frenzied life. I have also had more time alone than I’ve ever had. Here is what I have learned.
We ARE finishing well. The “WE” is the crucial part. No one has ever truly finished well alone. If they think they’re doing it totally on their own, they’re not finishing well. They’re just finished. So, this is how we’re finishing well:
As more and more people are losing their jobs in this tumultuous time, the family budgets need to be re-prioritized, modified, and greatly reduced. Normally, when it comes to the kids, there are more activities than ever before, and parents want to give them every opportunity to pursue what they want. But now, mortgage/rent and food share the top spot, followed by health, family care, and gasoline. Dance classes and sports are not essential for survival (I don’t really believe that), so they’re off the list until further notice, and all the studios have to close anyway for those who still can afford it.
A few days ago, I had to send out a letter to all my dancers saying that we have to close for an uncertain number of weeks, cancel performances, and disappoint dancers. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my career and the very first time I’ve ever had to do it. I’ve had to cancel classes for snow, ice storms, and make those decisions quickly before people left their houses. But this one was for real.
Suddenly, along the horizon enter the heroes!! The parents of my students are at the ready, making donations, giving encouragement, offering suggestions, charging in on their steeds of valor! Truthfully, no one was really on a horse, and the horizon was actually a flood of emails, but to me it was a Cecil B. de Mille triumph. Then the next wave of troops comes in; the teachers at the studio are jumping in to teach online classes, work on grants, helping any way they can, even though some of them have families at home that need attention while they are posting their teaching videos. All are fighting for their land, staking their claim into what has flourished for years! I know this sounds a bit overdramatic, but the emotions and concern are real.
The Bible says to “run the race as if to win.” That means pushing the hardest as you zoom past the finish line, not giving up as you approach. I loved watching the summer Olympics the year when one of the runners on the track team became seriously injured so close to the finish line. His father leaped out of the stands and held him up as he limped over the line. He finished well, but not without someone who loved him holding him up and hearing the cheers of the crowd. He actually finished the best. I have no idea who actually won the medals that year, but decades later, people still remember and talk about that young man and his dad, his hero.
My faculty are my heroes. My dancers and their parents are my heroes. They have leaped out of the stands so we can all cross the line together.
WE are finishing well.
Dance on.
Grace Notes 