Saying Goodbyes

For everyone in the dance world, you know that November is Dance Month. There are rehearsals and costume fitting/alteration mornings, Tech Rehearsals, Dress Rehearsals, Stage Runs, Staff Meetings and weekly classes thrown on top of all that. If you're involved in dance, say goodbye to your social life during November!

Well at the Studio this week, the news is out that this is my final year of teaching after 7 years of being the schools Kindies and Juniors Jazz Tap teacher and 18 years of dancing at the school myself. There are two girls that I am still teaching today who started in the dancing world the same year I started teaching them. One is my cousin (Spiderman in the above picture), and the other is this gorgeous little one.  

At the end of one of the Juniors weekly classes, this little poppets mum came in with tears in her eye and her hands shaking as she was getting her phone out and asking if her daughter could have a photo with me. I was guessing she had just found out I was leaving. My mum just so happened to be at my classes that day as well - she comes to watch them during class time so she doesn't have to come to the concert and gives her ticket up to someone else. Seeing this mother upset triggered the tears in mum as well.

I then got a call later that night after another rehearsal from a father of a girl in my Juniors Class who has been with me for 5 years saying his daughter has just found out I was leaving and cried the whole way home in the car. Teaching for 7 years means that I have been with a lot of my little ones for well over half their lives and have watched them grow. These girls often make and break my week and I love them all so much.

Saying goodbye to my kids, and the people who I personally have grown up with over the past 19 years is going to be hard come concert night...cue the tears!