Kids Who Sing and Dance

It's concert time at most schools this week. The pre-Christmas show. To show parents what their kids have been doing for the first three months of school.

Unless your kid goes to an arts high school. Then it's performance time year round. The kids are always rehearsing in the hallway. Makes me giddy when I walk through The Boy's school, to see how uninhibited these teens are.

The Boy is a band major. He plays percussion. I'm told kids usually stick to their own kind. That is, drama students hang out with drama students only, visual art students hang out with visual art students only. For whatever reason, The Boy's best buddies are musical theatre majors. They have big personalities. They are lively and easy going. They sing and dance. They love to please. They love to be loved. At the parent-teacher interviews last week, most teachers think The Boy is a musical theatre major. It's because he has that energetic, fun, noisy and easily distractible personality, just like musical theatre students.

When his friends see me, the boys leap and prance down the hall to greet me and make a deep bow, the girls hug me and kiss me. They say, Watch, watch how we do this. And they practise their dance steps for me, break out in chorus to hone that tune. I comment how I like their dance shoes. They show me the different kinds they wear and tell me where I can get some. I'm discussing shopping in a school hallway with teenagers. I am in awe of them.

This year, The Boy joined the choir. He is among a handful of non-musical theatre students who joined. He and a friend came home from their first performance tonight bouncing off the wall. They came into the house singing, clapping and laughing. They can't tell me what happened at the concert. They can only say things like, Oh that was so much fun. Oh it was so great. Oh that was just the best.

I can't wait to see the show tomorrow night. The Boy is in the orchestra and choir. One of his friends has a singing solo. Another one has a dance solo.

I am so lucky I get to hang out with these teens.