Noye's Fludde practice

Through the music teacher at school (and her husband), the girls are dancers in a musical play on the story of Noah's Arc being put on by the Western Oregon State College. The college students are acting and singing, there are about 16 kids that have hats on to represent the pairs of animals in the arc and Erika and Sasha are dancers to represent the raven and the dove. Today we had our third and final practice before the dress rehearsal in about 2 weeks.

I dropped the girls off at the church this will he held at and ran some errands and when I came back they were sitting with the dance teacher/student that is doing their dance watching the rehearsal. It was the first time the whole play was put together including the orchestra and the college students. Previously, only the kids representing the animals and Erika and Sasha were there. The dance teacher Christine leaned over to me and said, "Your girls are so bright and funny. They were commenting that the animals didn't include dogs and cats and that there shouldn't be any fish on Noah's Ark." This digressed into a discussion with Erika and I on fresh vs saltwater fish and how fresh water fish couldn't adapt to salt water and what osmosis was... but that's off topic.

We finally got to the song in which Erika had to dance. There she was, entering stage left to do her dance on the stage in front of the rest of the cast. She was so flustered that she forgot her dance. I tried to keep Sasha from laughing too loudly. When Erika came back, she exclaimed "I was so embarrassed: I didn't know I would be the only one dancing and I totally blanked out!". Yes Erika, that's what I've been trying to tell you and why I've been telling you to practice your dance every day so that when you get up to perform in front of the audience you don't forget it. Apparently it did not sink in until today that she was doing a solo dance. Sasha had heard me saying they were the only dancers and also had the benefit of performing after Erika so she did not forget as much as Erika. To be fair, this was also the first time they had also gotten to practice on the stage they were performing with a live orchestra instead of a hallway and a radio.

I don't think I'll have much problem convincing them to practice anymore!