Recital

Last Saturday Alex had a tap recital that I went to.  She is taking a tap class (she is in college) and at the end of the semester there is a recital for all of the dance classes at the school.  There was also a dance company that preformed and ya-dee ya-dee ya.  It was great.  You get it.

Anyways, my point in writing this post was to tell you about one of the performances.  And no, it is not the one Alex did.  She really did great though, and we all cheered.  But that is not the one i wanted to tell you about.

It was maybe the second or third performance, and out filed about twenty or so people.  Both men and woman.  Their ages ranged from 18 to maybe 40 years old.  I don't really know, it was hard to say.  Some carried hula hoops and some carried long ribbons, and some didn't carry anything.  Right away you could tell this one was going to be different.  Every person on stage was somehow afflicted with a handicap.  A few had Down Syndrome while the rest had other physical and mental handicaps.  My heart was already melting.  I don't care who you are, it takes a lot of courage to get up on stage and perform in front of people.

The music started and there was one person leading the group.  You could tell they were nervous, but they knew their parts and they glanced back to the leader every now and then to make sure they were on point.  I think I cried through the entire thing. Tears streamed down my face from beginning to end.  It was just beautiful what they were doing.  Not because they all did their parts at the exact right moment or because the moves they were doing were so amazing, but because it just...was.  I don't even know how to tell you, but it was just amazing.

I sort of felt like an idiot crying there in the front row.  I mean who just cries like that...in public no less?  But I did.  And I don't care.

And when they were done the audience roared and screamed and praised them for their performance.  They had the loudest and biggest reaction from the audience, by far.  They shuffled off the the stage with their faces lit up like nothing could touch them.

It was wonderful and I'm so glad I got to see it.