Dear TDS, Dancers & Families… You are amazing!!!
After an incredible 4 days in Niagara I’m leaving with memories of beautiful dancers but more strikingly, beautiful people…
Over the weekend, I was blessed to witness so many incredible moments…
Moments of celebration where mothers rushed into change rooms to congratulate their dancers on a job well done, filled with genuine pride that often can’t be put into words.
And moments of resilience where many of us, me included at times, had to help our children through moments of disappointment… the encouraging words that came from so many of you were inspiring. How lucky these children are to have parents like you!
It was equally touching to see the genuine compassion and care that so many of these dancers have for their fellow teammates… when someone got injured, it was a race to see who could find ice fast enough… when a bad migraine had its way with another dancer, her entire team rallied to show their support!
In the change rooms no matter what 1 person called out in need of, many voices chimed in “I got it, have mine!”
To the older dancers, thank you for being such beautiful role models to the younger girls… this morning, London stumbled upon the inter/Seniors waiting for awards. She quickly made herself at home in their circle, giddy to be hanging around the older girls, and while she was clearly half their age… she said to me on the ride home “but mom they made me feel equally welcome.” Needless to say, her day was made!
To those awesome prop dads (and yes I might be a bit biased on this one) – thank you for giving your time to your child’s craft… the amount of times I heard from little voices in the audience “that’s my dad” was priceless. Those are moments of investment in your children’s lives that help shape who they become!
To the parents… watching you all constantly rally and hustle to support your children was a beautiful thing… no matter how tired people got, everyone kept going to support, motivate and help move their dancers along. Some of you were jumping in to help other children, some of you balancing 2-3 dancers of your own…
There was a beautiful sense of commodore too! I heard so many parents say, “Oh ___________ is on next, I’m going to go in and watch” – and that next dance wasn’t often with their own child, rather is was simply a TDS number. It was so nice to see so many other families supporting dancers outside of their own roots!
I also saw many wonderful moments where TDS families and dancers offered compliments to other studios on routines they really liked. It was witnessing a few of those moments that offered great teachable moments for my own young children about seeing beyond studio letters in a program!
To the TDS staff, thank you for an amazing year! You have pushed our dancers to search for their potential and gifted them with stunning routines and encouragement to showcase their strengths!
I left Niagara extremely tired but also extremely proud to be part of the TDS family and wanted to share my admiration for all you and for all that you do!
A TDS MOM!!!!
