星媽的心聲! Being a Stage Mom!

My daughter's dance school will hold its annual dance recital at the local theater this weekend. The recital will showcase all the dance classes that this dance school teaches. This dance school is located in our school district, so it follows the schedule of the school district. Our school let out last week, so this week, the dance school holds its dance rehearsals at the theater and the real shows will begin Friday and ends Sunday. Since this dance school has 2 locations, dance students from one location will dance 2 shows on Friday and the early show on Sunday and the students from the other location will dance 2 shows on Saturday and the late show on Sunday.

My daughter will perform both Saturday shows as well as Sunday's finale show. She will perform 4 numbers -- ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop. It's a grueling dance routine that's more stressful for the moms than the dancers.Yesterday afternoon, my daughter had her dance rehearsal for her hip hop number. Later on tonight, she'll have her rehearsal for her jazz number. Tomorrow, she will do the rehearsals for her tap and ballet numbers. That sounds simple enough, but they are doing full dress rehearsals which means they have to be in full costume and full hair and makeup.

For her hip hop number, she will wear a high pony tail, with a blue t-shirt, grey baggy sweat pants, and her Converse sneakers. For her jazz number, she still wears a high pony tail, with a spandex top, jazz pants, and jazz shoes. For her ballet number, she'll wear her hair up in a classic ballet bun with a rented costume and ballet slippers. For her tap number, she will wear her hair half up and half down, with a white t-shirt and a flowy spaghetti strap dress which goes over her t-shirt, and of course, her tap shoes. All these costume and hair changes don't sound too bad until I saw the order of the dances. Her tap dance is act 5, but her ballet is act 16, jazz is act 17, and hip hop is act 19. There is 2 acts in between my daughter's ballet and jazz numbers, and only 1 act between her jazz and hip hop numbers. This means she'll have to change right on the side of the stage between acts. Needless to say, I will have to be there to help her change in and out of the costumes and re-do her hair, if necessary. And...we would have to do this for 3 shows!

We live in Los Angeles where many auditions take place. I have heard parents ushering their kids to various auditions just so their kids will have an opportunity to get into a TV show or movie. I truly believe that it takes a special parent to be able to do this line of work--fostering a child into stardom. I don't enjoy being a stage mom because I see hours of preparation prior to a 2-minute glory. It really is a lot of work for nothing. But I believe it is an invaluable experience for kids to learn to perform in front of a large audience. Inevitably, my daughter has learned to appreciate what goes on behind each performance, whether it's dance or music. So in the end, the harrowing experience of me being a stage mom is all worth it.

我的女兒的課餘活動, 除了女童子軍之外, 就是學舞蹈和鋼琴。現在是我逼著她繼續學鋼琴,可是她對舞蹈還是存有某種程度的熱衷。這學年,她每星朝一、二、三 及五下課後都有舞蹈課。我們是在自家附近的舞蹈學院學舞。這家舞蹈學院 (http://www.pspadance.com/) 已經有二十多年的歷史,培育了無數的舞者。小女生通常是四、五歲開始習舞, 然後到了七、八歲才會自行決定要不要繼續學舞。

這幾天都在忙著準備女兒的舞蹈公演。這星期二、三、四都得到戲院排演。雖然不是整天都要待在戲院, 但是只要是輪到她的作品, 她就得在場排練。 今年我女兒有四樣舞蹈作品要演出: 芭蕾舞, 爵士舞, 踢踏舞及嘻哈舞。昨天排演完還陪她到 Target 買跳嘻哈舞用的球鞋, 也順便買了上髮髻的髮夾。等一下還得去戲院二、三個小時。今天晚上要排演爵士舞。明天還得排練踢踏舞及芭蕾舞,所以這星期真的是以舞為生。

做媽媽的我除了要開車接送女兒,我還得陪在身邊做女兒的貼身助理,幫忙她換舞蹈服裝及髮型。女兒出場的時段己經排好。先跳踢踏舞(dance #5), 再跳芭蕾舞(dance #16), 接著跳嘻哈舞(dance #19), 最後是跳爵士舞(dance #21), 所以跳完芭蕾舞就馬上要在舞台邊換嘻哈舞的衣服及髮型,然後跳完嘻哈舞就要緊接著換爵士舞的衣服及髮型。我這做 ”星媽” 的就必需守在舞台邊待命,女兒一跳完舞,就要馬上幫她換衣改裝。

這已經是我們第二次參加舞蹈學院的公演了, 所以戲院場地及排演程序我和女兒都蠻清楚的。我們住在洛杉磯, 所以常常可以接觸到演藝界表演方面的機會。說真的, 如果要我做職業星媽, 我可能就無法勝任了。這種陪在表演人的身旁, 永無止境的等候, 絕對不是我想過的生活。我很佩服好萊塢的這些星媽為小孩子所做的付出,她們可能要經歷過無數次的試鏡,才會有一次的演出機會。還好舞蹈對我的女兒來講是純粹玩票性質。其實能上舞台表演真的可以帶給一個小女孩無限的自信與自我。