A quick intro, I'm not a dancer, just a mom.

Why am I here?

A month ago my daughter retired from rhythmic gymnastics (after 5 years) to focus on dance. She's entering L.A. County High School for the Arts as a dance major in the fall. She's gone from 18 hours/week of gym to ~8 hours/wk of random adult dance classes and I'm feeling a little disoriented (I think she is too, though being a teenager she would never admit it).

I've been a good "gym mom" (you know, the one who handles everything for the coach and the team and learns how the sport works and explains it all to the other moms) and I'm cruising dance sites so I can figure out what to expect now. Looks like my niche is "Studio" so I'll post some of my questions over there.

A couple of thoughts ...

Wow, dance is a lot different from gymnastics! from the posts I've read, there is a lot more respect for the individual and for limits of one's body. This will be a welcome change.

Also wanted to say that I am _really_ impressed with this board. With the software, the moderators, the depth of discussion, the civility of it all. I've run BBS's in the pre-web days, spent time on usenet in the early days, cruised through lots of web forums on different topics over the years, fought the moderated-board-vs.-unmoderated-board and freedom-of-speech battles several times, and I have to say this is one of the best, if not the best, discussion forum I've ever seen. Those of you who started it up and keep it running are doing a great job!

<small>[ 06 June 2003, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: Sirene ]</small>

Welcome and Thank You so much for you kind words Sirene. We love ballet Moms and look forward to your questions and posts, your daughters too.

Welcome, Sirene; I hope you find your time at CriticalDance to be enlightening.

One of the distinctives of CriticalDance is that our discussion forums are open to everyone. You will not just be talking with other dance moms, but with everyone else involved in dance as well --- teachers, teen and adult students, professional dancers, dance fans, etc.

It is through this diversity that we learn from each other. Often, a teacher or dancer or student might have an answer to your question as a mom. And you can similarly give insight to others based on your unique perspective. Or you can feel free to disagree with them. If we only talked to other people like ourselves, we would be the blind leading the blind.

So again, welcome. I look forward to hearing more from you. Feel free to search the CriticalDance archives for past discussions of topics that interest you.