Esprit de la Danse: Not a recital -- a real show!

Step aside So You Think You Can Dance (pun intended).  We’ve got dancing genius right here in our own neighborhood.  I’m talking about Gay Tarabanovic at Cupertino’s Esprit de la Danse dance studio.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in the second row of the cavernous Flint Center for the annual recital of the students of Esprit de la Danse.  Of course, I know some of you have been attending recitals of your little pink ballerinas for years.  Not so for me. Sure, I excitedly bought my daughter and me matching tap shoes when she was 4 (my post-partum feet didn’t fit into my cherished 7 ½ sized tappers). Nevertheless, she turned to me at the end of Kindergarten and said “Mommy, whatever you do, don’t sign me up for dance again”.

Thus followed 8 years of other interests, most of which put us on a first name basis with the sales clerks at Sports Authority.  Then, just when you think you’ve got your kid figured out, she says “I’d like to take a dance class. I have time between volleyball season and soccer season”.

Who knew?  I signed her up for a beginning/intermediate jazz class for 12 to 14 year olds at Esprit de la Danse. After extensive research (Google Maps), I chose Esprit de la Danse for its convenient location. I also chose it because it has a beginning jazz class for young teens. Lots of studios must figure that by such a ripe old age, you couldn’t possibly be a beginner.

It was so easy. I just took her there one evening each week and picked her up an hour later. I wasn’t the team mom.  I was never assigned snacks. I didn’t keep score. I didn’t run the pitching machine. I didn’t cheer myself silly or practically faint with anxiety over the crucial game point.  I just wrote a check.

Easy for me, that is. Now that I have seen the recital, however, I know that there is a lot going on at that studio -- by the director, by her staff, and by dedicated parents.

But back when I heard the recital would be three hours long, I started making plans for an early escape. After all, my kid was in one routine, the second in the show.  Staying for another 2 hours and 48 minutes sounded like torture.  “Do you think we’ll have time for a movie before we pick her up?” I asked my husband.

Luckily, we decided that leaving from the second row after twelve minutes would be, well, incredibly rude – almost as bad as yelling at a 13-year-old umpire. Besides, the opening number showed us the high standards we could expect from the rest of the show.

We loved every minute of every number. We loved the big girls – those high school seniors en pointe who have obviously spent even more time at the barre than our girl did on the pitcher’s mound.  We loved the tiny blue fairies, who constantly looked off-stage to their right for guidance from a teacher, and were all upstaged by the tiniest fairy of them all.  We loved the a cappella tappers. We loved the age- and skill-appropriate choreography of all twenty-something routines, with the wide variety of music and styles. We loved the colorful costumes.  We got a special treat of a dance by three beautiful alumni. 

We even enjoyed the finale, which brought all the students (a couple of hundred?) on stage for a final elaborate dance bow. Was that my daughter dancing ballet?

I came expecting to be bored. I left blown away. Gay Tarabanovic is obviously a genius in dance, as well as someone who understands kids. Not to mention that she is skilled at managing a huge event, with the personality to have the help of throngs of loyal parents and friends.

My daughter (who -- did I mention? -- was awesome in her jazz routine with only 6 months of experience)  is eager to sign up again for jazz, and maybe add ballet.  That’s the surest sign that something right is going on at Esprit de la Danse.