The club where the girls dance decided to go to finals this year, and so 2 weeks ago we headed off to Collingwood. Normally this would be a 6+ hour drive from Ottawa to Collingwood, but we decided to break the trip up (5 in the car - plus dog is too much for that long of a trip) and head to North Bay for a night to visit my parents. A couple of 3.5 hour trips later - we were in Collingwood.

The finals were held at the Blue Mountain Resort, a pretty big resort - with a number of condo/hotels and a nice little village to walk around at the center. There's a conference center right there on-site, plenty of restaurants, groceries, a Beavertails and Starbucks right there - so no need to head into town even and it was all walking distance. Was nice that we didn't have to do much driving while there, and could focus a little more on the finals and some relaxing...

The resort itself is a 'ski' resort, although the hill is pretty small. It's reported as Ontario's biggest ski hill - which really doesn't say much for Ontario skiing. There are a number of runs, but the hill is only 450m high with a vertical drop of just over 200m. But we DID NOT GO FOR SKIING - it is summer after all...

We did go up the hill to look around - could see Georgian Bay from the top and all around the area. Nice view. The hill in the summer is used for hiking, mountain biking and downhill biking (which looked pretty fun).

Here's a pic from the top, village below and Georgian Bay in the background.

Rebekah actually joined us for the trip! (I think she was hoping for more sun...) Was pretty bored for most of the week, until she started hanging out with some of the older dancers that she knew from school.

Here is a quick clip of the resort and some of the views from the hill. clip










Emma with Lisa - clip

No more dance for the year now... well, there are some summer practice sessions... but last night we found out that Emma has been asked to move up to Meghan's competition group - so she is EXTREMELY happy about that!

A final note - the year end recital for Elite went off well (prior to finals) and the parents number survived the back-to-back nights (with just the appropriate amounts of alcohol). As promised - here is a pic of the Dance Dads in all their glory...

If you can guess which one is me - you get a prize...

Another report from the front lines of being a Dance Dad...

When we first arrived, we had heard some of the scores the ELITE dancers were getting and it seemed we were in for a rough weekend...but it turned out pretty good for Meghan and Emma.

This was Emma's first competition, and was really excited to be going up with her Tap and Jazz group routines.  She was the one that got to scream out the 'Ready...And!' to get the rest of her team set to go, and off again.  They did really great, bringing home gold awards (btw - it goes bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond) and first place in both, and Emma brought it!  Sorry, no pics... or vid... but she had the biggest smile on, and had sooooooo much energy in both routines.  So much so, that following the competition, the Studio director offered her the chance to do her own solo at the next competition - which is only a month away - 99% of the time, they start learning the routing in September and have MONTHS to practice...  She was very happy, and really excited.  She's had one lesson now on the routine , and has been practicing daily.  She loves it so much.

Meghan had a great weekend too, racking up platinums and firsts in all of her group items and a few diamonds in the large group routines too.  The big one for her this weekend, was her Novice Jazz solo.  She was the ONLY ONE in the Sunday morning session to get a diamond award!  Later at the overall awards, we were half-expecting her to get an overall award for her routine, only to find out that  a 17 year guy had a diamond routine later that afternoon...and he won the overall.  Rigged.  ;-)

Overall - a great weekend for the girls.

Not the dance dust, the basement.  I'm finally making some progress.  Had my dad down for the week to help put up drywall.  It wasn't exactly smooth - I'm no pro with framing, wiring etc... so found a few things that I won't do next time!  Basements are a pain, in that nothing is square.

Different heights, walls are rounded, pipes and ducts everywhere - makes it challenging.  But the drywall is 90% done, and I'm actually taking a breaking from the sanding to write - too much dust, can't see or breathe!

Through the magic of me not publishing until I get some new vid ready - here is where I'm at:

Tonight I'm going to head over to a friends to tell him not to do what I did, as he starts work on his basement...  Seems in our 20's, we helped each other move every year or two - now we help each other drywall.

There better be beer there...

One last thing, found another clip I had made awhile ago with our cocker spaniel.  I like to - let's say - challenge her at times.  No cruelty, just for my own amusement ;-)

You'll see...

Not like I have much of a choice Having 3 girls pretty much paints me into a corner. Yes it's absolutely true that girls play hockey, but we haven't always been here and dance was something they were always able to do - and loved.

This past weekend, we had our first road trip competition of the season to Peterborough. Meghan is in full on with competitions this year. Last year she had one dance number that she competed in with the group, this year she has seven! Five group numbers and two solos. Needless to say, it's been pretty busy for her during the week going to all the practices and private lessons...etc, etc... Her dance school, Elite, is really very good. They work the kids hard to make them the best they can be (no they're not the army).

Meghan was scheduled to dance five of those numbers on Friday, so last Thursday evening, we packed up her seven tiny little shiny outfits, her sister, a cooler full of food and snacks and headed down highway 7 to Peterborough. I'd like to mention that this has to be the worst drive ever! It's three hours of 80 km/h!!! You heard me, 80. That's like going down some boulevards in the city. And I can hear it now - cmon, 80 is just a suggestion... more like a minimum... Well, first of all - I had no idea it was 80 all the way. I had assumed that it was 90 like most country highways. I was driving my typical 15km/h (or so) over the limit and in the middle of nowhere, passed a cop going the other way. He nailed me for doing 107 in an 80. It was actually pretty funny. I hadn't been pulled over in a looooooong time. Not that I don't speed - I just don't get caught (well, other than the photo radars in Germany...). The officer asked when I had been pulled over for speeding last - I told him I couldn't remember. Honestly, I couldn't - think it was at least 15 years ago... (He didn't need to know about me - legally - going 220+ on the autobahn) He went back to his car, did his thing slowing me down for 10 minutes - then came back with a reduced ticket. He told me to drive 95km/h and no one would pull me over. Ok - done, so our 3 hour cruise turned into 3.5 hours...

Horrible drive aside, we managed to roll into the hotel around 9 and went to bed. Meghan had a lot of dancing to do the next day, and we wanted to make sure she got her rest. It didn't help that someone was insisting on remodeling upstairs and was drilling away - at 10pm - REALLY?!? Luckily Meghan had already fallen asleep - but the rest of us struggled through the night. I would have called down, but didn't want to chance waking her up.

Friday was crazy. One of my many jobs as a dance dad, was to stay the hell out of the way, but the other was to be the mule. That meant getting the cooler ready for the day, pack up the car as things were ready, get the coffee/donuts and then drive them down to the theater (then take the car back to the hotel and walk back to the theater to avoid parking hastles!). Sara had to prep Meghan, get the hair and makeup done, get all the days costumes and hairpieces together and know the schedule so she knew what she had to do and when.

Obviously my responsibilities were far greater ;-)

Apparently - because that song was played almost every other routine... the other song getting the most play? Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe. Yeehaw, special torture! Since the day was primarily for the wee ones, under 12, there was plenty of 'cutesy, pukey' music.

From about 9am until 9pm that night kids were paraded out in glittery costumes, tons of makeup and boomp-tick-boomp-tick music. Every 2.5 minutes. It gets to the point where you're relieved to here classical music for ballet routines! Sitting in a dark theater, for hours on end, on seats that might have been comfortable for the first 30 minutes - was kind of like flying to China.

Luckily, Meghan or one of the Elite members were dancing every hour or so that day, so I had something to look forward to. But still it made for a looooooong day.
Meghan did amazing. She placed 1st in both of her solos, and her team routines all received diamond awards (highest level). Here are a couple of shots from her solos...

Day 2 - The surly teamster

Saturday was my big day. I was signed up to help with the set for some of the big numbers. It was a bit of a relief to know that I wouldn't have to be sitting all day... I had gone through the process of the stage setup once before for dress rehearsal, and knew that the pieces were big and heavy. They basically had a stair builder create a huge platform for them - but it was way overkill. Massive 2x10 joists on 12 inch centers with 5/8inch plywood on top - they were better built than 99% of Kanata homes!!! So we hauled these huge pieces out of the trailer and waited for a break to bring them in and set them up. There was a collection of about 8 dance dads there, other poor souls relegated to being mules and now teamsters like me... but are all great sports about it.

We got the break and pulled all these things on stage and hooked it up. Our girls all cheered us on as we tried to put up a massive 20 foot wide sign on posts that was to stand 6 feet above the stage. For a mental image - think about the statue of the americans soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima! The dance teams did their thing, pulled in more diamond awards and really did great - including Meghan who had a pretty big part in this huge production routine.

Take down was another thing altogether. We went around back and waited for them to be ready for us. It was beautiful outside, 15c, sunny... I told the guy next to me 'this is perfect biergarten weather!'. He said back 'there's one right over there, saw a few of our guys there already!'.

So not needing any more encouragement, we went for a quick pop and sat in the sun. Much better than trying to stay awake inside watching yet another group of suburban girls try to pull of a tough hip hop routine - wearing fancy scarves no less...

After the pack up, there was nothing left for me for the day. Emma and I headed back to the hotel to go swimming, something the other girls couldn't do - a sore point with many of them. They amused themselves though - and had fun just hangin out.

Day 3 - Almost done
One dance left to go. Unfortunately, it was 3rd from last on the day's sched - and wouldn't be until almost 6. We took as much time as humanly possible at the hotel before heading over for what would be a long day of waiting, a quick dance, then awards, then a lovely 3.5 hour drive back in the dark on that stupid highway.

Again, the dance was a huge Jazz routine with close to 40 kids on stage. It was REALLY GOOD. Meghan again had a pretty big part in it - right up front pulling off some big moves. The awards were then handed out, they got another diamond for the routine - but more importantly - that number received the 'best of show' for the entire weekend. Everyone was very happy with that - a very successful weekend for the Elite dancers.

A horribly painful 3.5 hour drive later in the dark and rain, and we were home. Meghan had racked up 2 emerald and 5 diamond awards, with a 1st in each - and I got a taste of what it was like to be a dance dad.