Susan Senator

Today I woke up instantly excited and full of purpose: it was my Baby Bellies’ dance recital. When I first walked outside, I entered a day that matched my mood: soft and warm. The air around me was like smooth palms on my face. Tiny green bulb fingers had poked through the brown pie-crust covering of leaves in my gardens overnight. “Ha-ha!” I said to Max and Ben as we opened up the car. “Spring is coming. Can you find some signs of spring?” Ben actually answered me: “There’s almost no more snow.” Max didn’t answer, but he seemed to be looking around, at least. I pointed to my sunny wall garden, where already the cerastium was greening up — it would eventually burst into the little white flowers of snow-in-summer, but not yet. “Look there for clues,” I said, “because that’s where it is sunniest and warmest.” Max nodded.

It is very important to me that the boys look around and notice things that they are not accustomed to thinking about. It is easy for them to get pulled into video game characters and technological wonders; but they need to let the basic human relief of early spring touch them, too.

I feel that I have succeeded in peeling back the Baby Bellies’ awareness of music and how different instruments feel like — and ask of you — different things. The Misirlou is a perfect way to teach this, because its sinuous melody seems to really call for the use of veils, of things waving around through the air. I tell the girls to listen for the flutes, listen for the rattle, and to make the movement that comes naturally when you hear them: pedal turn to the flute; shimmy to the rattle. Notice when a phrase is coming to an end, as your signal to shift from a line into a circle. That kind of thing.

I got to the theater early with my bag of shmattes leftover from my party, and started hanging veils all over the stage. I went backstage and found a few pieces of scenery to use: a lantern and a painted fireplace. draped my newest cossie belt over a stool for more color. I thought it looked great. This set design was probably the most fun part for me, other than the joy of watching the Baby Bellies dance so well.

Just about every mom showed up, and even a dad or two. The Extended Day classes came to watch, and one or two teachers who were around. Ben worked the curtains and Ned worked the camera. We were able to run through it twice before our performance, which we did twice, too, because it was so brief!

I had brought three bags of donuts and another mom brought a tray of cookies. All were devoured in minutes. I could tell that the girls were really happy with how they’d done. I was totally in a sweat when it was over, but I couldn’t have been prouder.