The Eleventh Annual Aerial Dance Holiday Show will soon be upon us! I have to be honest here, I wasn’t sure this one was going to happen. I don’t think any of us were. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but wow. It’s been weird. No one can be sure that their best laid plans will come to fruition anymore (my condolences to everyone who booked wedding venues), and making plans for something as ambitious as an aerial show is an intimidating task even for pre-covid times. The rigging, the scheduling, the cost, the TIME contributed to our shows is horrifying to me personally. I love all of you, but I would not do this for you. I would drive all of you to Mexico so you could get a cheap nose job. I would bail all of you out of jail. I would hide your illegal herd of alpacas on some undisclosed properties I have access to until your paperwork comes through. But I would not have invested in a showcase this year. The risk of cancellation would be too great for me, and I would have thrown in the towel and waited for smoother sailing. Paula, however, is a “big picture” person. She’s a good organizer, but she also knows how valuable this type of endeavor can be to a community. A reason to set a goal, something to be excited about, and most of all, a reason to celebrate each other. We always are doing our best to put everyone’s safety as our number one priority (although we are usually worried about rigging and making sure our dancers feel safe, informed, and comfortable, this whole COVID thing has just given us another thing to worry about) and unfortunately, this will strain profits for the show. We were truly worried how everything would affect our security and the safety of our students.
And now the time is near at hand! I just want to say (and I think I speak for all of the instructors) that I appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and support for this. The amount of women performing is extraordinary and I’m very excited to see what everyone has put together! It is truly difficult times for a small business like ours, and I feel a little dramatic right now, but I don’t know what I would do without all of you! Honestly, I was less than enthused to do a routine this year because I felt as though I’ve stagnated in my skills. I’m not mad about this, it’s to be expected! We have all lived through some traumatic times together, even though it feels very abstract and dramatic to say this at the moment. It’s ok to have halted some of your training for a bit, and we’re all playing catch up as a result. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun and celebrate together! I hope that all of our performers are proud of themselves for agreeing to bring us all some much needed distraction and amusement; because I think we all could use some of that right now. I’m a little bummed that Chrissy and my performance is the last one of the day, because this really cuts into my drinking time, but at least I can watch all of you with my senses unencumbered. Keep practicing and remember to smile! We all appreciate you ladies for giving us a reason to keep being better versions of ourselves and reminding us how special our business is. I would be fused to my couch by now without you!
