Page 77 of Perfect Enough
I am writing to let you know that I’m not happy with the way my daughter, Olivia, is progressing in tap. It has been three weeks, and she can barely do a few little steps. I plan on speaking with your mother to see if I can get my daughterinto a more experienced teacher’s class. Maybe if you had some dance experience yourself, you might be a better instructor.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Dorothy Habernathy
I stared at the email for two minutes before starting to laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It wasn’t the first time a mother had emailed to complain about me as a teacher, but they usually went straight to my mother. And it always seemed to be the moms whosehusbandsbrought the kids to class who ended up having a problem with me.
Sighing, I stood and left my office to go find my mother. She was currently in another private lesson, so I made my way to my studio to get ready for the next class—the class that just happened to have little Olivia as a student. I took some time to stretch before anyone arrived. Slipping on my tap shoes, I drew in a few deep breaths. I was banking on Mrs. Habernathy bringing her daughter today.
Twenty minutes later, the kids all started to pile in, and I gave them a few minutes to prepare themselves. I saw Mom enter the waiting room then glance into my dance studio. Sure enough, Olivia’s mother was with her. They both took a seat on a bench.
I drew a deep breath and wondered why her email suddenly bothered me. The ones I had received in the past I just let go, but for some reason, I was pissed.
“Okay, let’s all get lined up, please!” I said as I clapped my hands a few times. “This is our fourth class, and do you remember what we learned during our first lesson?”
A few littles raised their hands. Olivia was one, and as much as I wanted to pick her, I didn’t. “Lynn?”
“We learned rhythm!”
“That’s right! Rhythm is a pattern we learn and repeat. Remember the clapping?”
They all shouted yes.
“Everyone, sit down, and let’s hug our knees.”
Once they were all seated, I said, “Which is our right foot?”
When they all held up their feet, I said, “You know what to do!”
As a group, they each started to tap their right foot.
“Count it out.”
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!”
“Great job!” I said with a big smile. “Let’s do our left foot.”
The kids repeated the same process with their left foot.
“Let’s do our right heel.”
The kids tapped the right and left heels eight times.
“Great work! Now, what do we do?”
“Tap both feet super-fast!” Olivia called out.
“Yes!” I replied, fighting the urge to look at my mother and Olivia’s mother while sticking my tongue out at the latter. “Let’s stand up and get ready to do our ‘Baby Shark’ dance.”
The kids all stood. Some jumped in place, and some did a little spin. They were mostly six, so I wasn’t about to wrangle them all. Once the music started, they would fall in line.
“Bend your knees! Great job. Now tap your right toe. Now your left.”
They moved onto their heels as the song went on.
“Good job, friends. What comes next?”