Saturday, February 5, 2011

30 kids and counting...

I wanted to use today's post to introduce you to my second family... That's right. I have two. Don't judge me.

Blog Followers, meet Aftershock Dance.


This is actually only about 2/3 of them. The other third had already left for home when I frantically remembered I wanted to take this photo.

Believe it or not, today marks the one year anniversary of Aftershock Dance. This time last year, myself and two of my old dancing buddies had our very first free hip hop class open to the community. At that time we had about 5 people showing up on a regular basis. Since then we have grown over six times that size.  We are now well over 30 kids and growing bigger every week!

Out of these 30 kids we have selected a core group of teens/young adults (happy Kaitlyn?) to be our committed group of dancers. We've put them onto their own team and have pretty much labeled them the "dancing billboard" of Aftershock Dance. This photograph has myself and my two partners, Michelle and Jacqui, along with the 12 other members known as Aftershock Dance Team (ASD Team).

(Photograph by Debi Boerckel)

Now that I've gotten all those applicable introductions aside. I would like to lose this proper nonsense and brag my little heart out. These people are just so amazing and I am so unbelievable blessed to call them "family".

A week from today these guys have their very first performance as ASD team. For the last 5 months we've pushed and pushed and right when they least expected it we pushed some more. To be honest, I thought they were one practice away from throwing up their hands, kicking me in the shin and storming out.

Well, today was one of the final two practices before their performance on the 12th. Unfortunately, Jacqui had to go out of town, Michelle went to a birthday celebration for her dear ol' grandpa and I was stuck at home with the kids because my husband got called to work at the last minute... Go figure, right? So with all three leaders incapacitated, we were left with no choice but to cancel practice. However, they wouldn't have it! Some protested, some begged, others complained, I think one might have even bribed me with candy but none of them would take no for an answer. After an hour of one howling call after another I received "the" phone call. They were gonna have practice with or without me. Now granted, at first this was a little disheartening (why don't they need me???) but in all actuality... how cool is that?!

What a great anniversary gift. In one year, I went from a dance instructor of 5 to a Mama Bear of 30. And let me tell ya, I am one proud Mama Bear.

3 comments:

  1. :-)

    And for the record...I'm not a teenager. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Consider your reputation intact. It's all fixed.


    ::cough cough:: diva ::cough cough ;)

    ReplyDelete