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As you may know I am the dance team coach at Turrrentine Middle School. When I took this position 5 years ago I was not sure what I was getting myself into. Today I can say it has been, and still is, one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I see girls grow into confident young ladies through our shared love of dance. The team has grown from 12 members to 23! We now include 6th graders on the team as well. My team works so hard preparing for their dance season with countless practices all year long. When they perform I call them "contagious" since they make everyone want to dance right along with them.
I have some exciting news to share and I hope that you will help us out!
I entered the Turrentine Middle School Dance Team in the Degree Girl Varsity Award and we have been selected as a finalist!
They have a chance of winning $5,000!!!
The online voting period will begin at 9:00 a.m. ET on October 3, 2011, and continue through 6:00 p.m. ET on October 17, 2011.
I just had to write a blog post about the first day of dance class for little girls. This is my 26th year of teaching little ones and the same thing happens every year.
Over the years I have come to appreciate the gestures, the emotion, and the pride a parents feels on this special day. This week with my classes I stood back and peeked as little pink dancers climbed out of their cars and carried their bags. Moms were all smiles as they walked hand in hand with their ballerina to be. Girls would look at each other and rub each others leotards as if "we are princesses". I got down to their level and said hello and told them my name. I told them that they have been waiting their whole life for this day. I watched Mothers look at their daughters wondering what they would do next... will they walk in by them selves... will they listen... will they have an accident... will they just stand there... will they like class and so on and so on. I sometimes wonder if they will remember this day.
I want the Mothers to burn that image in their brain of their sweet little pink ballerina holding onto their pinky. The dancers all walked in by themselves and had a wonderful time. I felt such joy because classes went beyond my expectations. I invited Mommies in after class and heard the whispers as they could not believe their daughter did not run to them... but instead stood on her spot ready to show what she had learned. The little dancers performed their steps and said goodbye to me with a curtsy... and clapped like little ladies. Their Mommies clapped with smiles as big as Mister Sun. Their daughters then ran to them and gave them well deserved hugs.
You did it Mommy and you did it sweet dancer! I held back tears as I watched Mothers look at their daughters knowing just how proud they were at that very moment. I love making memories... and the first day of dance class is one of my favorites!
Yes, we got to bed kind of late last night but the girls decided they wanted to pack and clean before they went to bed. It was hard to get up this morning and even harder to wake the girls. I had a couple of girls say to me on our walk to breakfast...."Miss Kim, I don't want to leave"....what a wonderful thing to say. The 8th graders realize this is their last camp as a middle school team, the 7th graders are thinking ahead to next year, and the 6th graders are the ones that do not want to leave!
I think I braided 15 heads of hair while preparing for our final performances for parents. The energy was incredible as the music played and the girls saw their parents come in the gym. I loved after the warm-up how some of the girls came to give their parents a hug only to turn right around and go join their team. They performed their A, B, and C routines for ribbons. Shamani stole my heart when I saw her get nervous before she walked on. I could feel her pain...but it was a good kind of pain. She looked up at the parent filled bleachers....this was her first time doing anything like this. She was in position and her chest was visibly rising and falling from her nervous body. I saw her whisper "I am scared" while continuing to smile. I felt a huge lump in my throat and looked at her parents and wondered how they felt. The music started and so did Shamani. She worked through her nervousness and finished the dance with a smile from here to the moon. When she looked at her blue ribbon her little body shot at least 3 feet in the air. This is a perfect example of how camp is so good for the team. You work so hard to prepare for something like this and then when you do it you feel such a feeling of accomplishment. Shamani along with the rest of the girls all had that same feeling of "I did this".
After the performances awards were given out. I am so happy to announce that TMS Dance team received a SUPERIOR trophy for their performances. TMS Dance also earned the 110% Award which UDA describes as "the team that best exemplifies what TEAM UDA is all about-full effort and dedication to success". I was so proud of this award because this was one of their goals to earn. They received another spirit stick to go along with their super spirit stick. The captains received invitations to go dance in the Macy's Day parade. I was awarded the Coach Leadership Award for the third year. I was stunned because I truly did not expect it because I was surrounded by incredible coaches from other high schools. What meant the most was looking at the bleachers and seeing my parents stand up and clap....I will never forget that. I then looked at my girls as they grinned and clapped for me and thought to myself....I am feeling exactly how they are feeling after receiving their awards.....we are all doing something right! Thank you to Universal Dance Association for having this camp for my girls....you can count on me every year. UDA does an amazing job of teaching, team building, networking, and showing the girls a great time. I love you TMS dance team and thank you for making this camp unforgettable.
Day Three is almost done. The girls are practicing their dances right now with five other high school groups. Karena is with the 6th and 7th graders while the 8th graders are in the big lobby working on an extremely hard jazz dance. They competed tonight for their A routine and I am so proud to say that EVERY girl received a blue ribbon. You should have seen their faces as they looked in their hands at their hard earned blue ribbon. I think they are just so star struck with the high school groups that they do not realize that they can do just as well.....especially with their showmanship. Parents, you will see this tomorrow!
I have to make this blog post short since we have to practice because after practice we will have our traditional talent show directed by Dani. It is something the girls have been waiting for this all weekend. Sorry again moms, they might be up for a while tonight but I told them they can just sleep all day tomorrow!
Highlights for today were a great breakfast followed by a much needed review of all of our routines. We are now officially the loudest group in the cafeteria....we laugh nonstop. Six girls tried out for All American today and al six made it. They have the opportunity to perform in the Thanksgiving Parade in Philadelphia. We had our crazy day and dressed up in different sports themes such as football, baseball, soccer, you name it. Karena and I got into the fun and dressed as a TMS dancer....you know dance is a sport! I rocked pigtails while Karena rocked the side ponytail. Think about how we felt as we entered the gym and no other coaches dressed up! Oh well, that just made us rock it even more! The coaches did have a surprise for the girls. We secretly did a skit/dance that we performed after the girls performed the "fun" D routines. I thought the girls were going to jump off the bleachers when they realized what we were doing. I just hope and pray that Western Alamance Dance Team did not video it....and it shows up on facebook. Let me just say that Karena and I were divas. Taneia came up to me and said "Miss Kim you did gooooooood"...my favorite of all day was the girls telling me that "I looked young".....ha ha....now Moms you know what I was thinking in my head "how old do I actually look?"!
I had a great coaches meeting today and we all shared some tears talking about our girls. I have come to realize once again what an honor it is to be in the position. I get to touch the lives of 23 amazing girls. I get to be a part of their jokes, their stories, and their heart forever. What a gift of love to me from them as I watch them grow into beautiful young ladies. Thank you to the parents for giving your daughter this opportunity. Thank you to my husband for taking care of Jacob, Will, and especially Walker while I was gone. I have missed you all so much but you know how much I love this and are always supportive of me doing what I love to do. The best was to describe the feeling of coaching these girls is after I watch them learn, perform, or just have fun it is like a parent feels after hearing something good about their child.....I feel like I have done something right.
I woke up bright and early but no so bright eyed but definitely bushy tailed. I do not know why I even set an alarm clock because I anxiously wake up at 3:00, 4:00, 4:30, 5:30 because I am so excited. I let the girls sleep until 6:15 and start down the hall quietly knocking on the captains doors. Becky popped up, Lilly starred at me like "really", and Carly looked like she was sleep walking as they joined me in the hall to start our tradition of singing "Good Morning, Good Morning" with birds flying over our heads (my husband tells me that I have birds flying around my head like Snow White). Most girls woke up easily but some girls were not phased by our loud poundings (Grace, Becca, and Olivia) on the door. I made sure every girl got a big warm hug from me since Mom was not there. We were ready in 30 minutes and sat down for our team meeting. I gave two blue ribbon awards out. The first one was my MVP of the day. This girl worked hard all day....not just at performing but at learning. She always had a smile on her face and encouraged others. She is just a bright ray of sunshine on our team. Our MVP of Day 1 was Delaney Rhodes. The next award was given by our captains....called The Captains Choice Award. They explained that this dancer perfected her dances and showed very well. She had improved so much in just one year and has grown into a powerful dancer with some fierce attitude (while dancing). Our Captains Choice Award went to Cameron Clark.
We left for breakfast and I was so proud of MOST of the girls.....oj, milk, water, but Dani called her drink "Coke-juice"....oh well Mom and Dad....I tried! She was eating a healthy breakfast to go along with her brown juice. Becca had her cocoa puffs, Lillie W. had a 5 course meal, while I had to send Sommer back to get some sort of food....poptarts do not cut it with Miss Kim.
Off to class we went to learn our B routine. The 6th and 7th graders learned a cute hip hop dance while the 8th graders and Karena learned a challenging jazz dance. When we get back the older girls will teach the younger ones and the younger ones will teach the older ones. We will come back with around 6-7 dances when all is said and done. We left for lunch at 11:30 and yes....our girls were first in line.....Olivia was the first girl in our line! I have learned that Beyonce loves fries....and more fries so Miss Kim had to expand her palate and find something else today to go along with her fries. I am hoping to see her eat something green while we are here! Today they all left the cafeteria with ice cream cones. We had one hour after lunch and most girls gathered in three rooms and just talked, laughed, and rested. Some girls were in the Pretty In Pink room doing their make-up. Cameron, Becca, and Grace working on Taneia, Beyonce, Imari, and Shamani.....sorry moms.....I will make them wash it off before they see Daddy on Monday. Carly was collapsed on her bed sleeping like a baby. After a restful 45 minutes we walked back to the gym for the afternoon session.
The afternoon was packed with team building activities (the girls had to figure out how to flip a sheet while standing on it), technique class, A and B routine reviews and drill downs. Dinner was great. I love how the girls want to sit somewhere different every time. Karena is great with the girls sharing her funny stories. We came back with just enough time to freshen up and then we had to be back for our "C" routine by 6:10. I let the girls choose which dance they wanted to learn for the "C" routine and they split up into three groups. After the dances the girls did nice cool down and I joined them for a relaxing stretch. Our girls were awarded the super spirit sticks from another team which made our girls feel like super stars.
At this very moment the 8th graders are practicing their routines and the 6th and 7th graders have taken their showers (I promised them they could go first) and are settling down. The girls are all getting along with each other. I see 8th graders sitting with 6th graders, 7th graders with 8th and 6th, they are all mixing it up at all times. This is such a joy to see. They received a BLUE RIBBON for their home routine and the judges wrote that our team's biggest strength is their showmanship. I have heard from other teams all day "your girls are so awesome"...."we love your little divas"....."your girls work so hard".....this makes me so proud. The girls are learning that they can work hard and have fun at the same time even when they are dying to go to the bathroom, hungry, thirsty, sore, and tired....the end results make it all worthwhile.
Wow.....what a day. It is now 11:10pm and I have counted all the girls, checked their doors, and wished them goodnight. Here are some of the highlights of our first day at UDA Camp.
We met this morning bright and early at 7:45am. Mom's vehicles were packed with luggage, pillow, decorations, and drinks. We all made a convoy and headed to camp. Once we arrived the girls unloaded and waited outside in anticipation for their room keys. I let them pick their rooms and the fun began! The girls started decorating with their own themes such as Hollywood, Zebra, Pretty in Pink, and Nutcracker just to name a few. Pizza was ordered and the girls enjoyed lunch while the captains and I went to a brief meeting. The girls and Miss Karena joined us and the pep rally was next. I had to go to a coaches meeting as the girls warmed up and started learning their first dance. I have to say that I was preoccupied sitting in the meeting thinking about what the girls were doing....especially my new girls. When the meeting was over I rushed upstairs to find the girls mastering their dances. I love seeing their faces after they finish...such a great feeling of accomplishment. During this time we were able to practice our home routine. I think the girls asked me what time it was about 20 times.....they were ready to go eat! Let me tell you.....when we finished those girls moved faster than I have ever seen them move.
Dinner Time! The girls filled their bellies with lots of goodies....maybe some nutritious food somewhere.....I tried moms! The dessert table was a very popular section...that is all I am going to say. We headed back to the dorm to prepare for the home routine show. We had fun fixing hair and getting all pretty. I could tell that the girls were getting a little nervous about performing so Dani decided to show our spirit we would do a conga line as we entered the gym. Great idea Dani! Our girls showed their spirit and enthusiasm. This is a part of camp that I love. They feel the freedom to just laugh out loud, yell together, cheer together, and jump up and down.
The team routine was awesome! The girls did the best job ever. I heard Taneia say, "I want to do that again". They were just so proud of themselves....and so was I of them. After the showcase they did drill downs. This is sort of like Simon Says. You have to have intense listening skills to perform well. Our girls won lots of ribbons but Becky is by far our leader in this task. I bet she will give those high school girls some competition at the end of camp. I loved watching the girls try so hard with this exercise.
Camp ended and we came back to the dorms for practice, snacks, camp store, showers, more snacks, and hanging out in each other's rooms. It is happening. The same thing each year. They are bonding together. Today they have played together, danced together, eaten together, practiced together, and now they are sleeping. We came here this morning as 23 girls but as they laid their head down they are becoming a team. I am beyond tired but this is just so worth it. To be a part of one of the best memories of their lives is such a gift. Looking at the pictures you can see the happiness in their faces which makes these heavy eyes smile. Thank you to the parents for giving me the opportunity to teach your daughters. They are truly amazing.
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