"The Holiday Show" involved grades pre-k to 12th in a spectacularly long performance by both day time students and after school program groups alike. Zora practiced 82 times with her fellow gymnasts. She was to start the act (a questionable decision, I thought, for the youngest of the group). The music starts, she walks out, faces the crowd with a smile and wave, then does a somersault. Done. Next girl up.
Then performance day arrived.
 |
| Full make-up station for all the little gymnasts. Serious business. |
 |
| Her face is stage ready. I think that's a tree ornament on her cheek. (ps. No, I didn't shave her head.) Video clip of "backstage". Please notice the warring cowboys. There was also a bunch of kids with green hair dye in spray cans tagging other children. Awesome. |
 |
| Happy Z with her fans after the show. Blue-shirt girl looks crazy, but is harmless. |
Now that you've seen what things were like behind the scenes, you can imagine how it all ended up in front of the 200+ person crowd. Zora was frantically shuffled on stage where she promptly ... froze. She stood there, for the whole bit, stiff as a board and smiling wide (she did remember that part!) as the other girls figured out how to complete their routines around her. Her self-worth wasn't wounded a bit in the process, though. I overheard her on a phone call to grandma later that evening: "I did great, grandma! I just forgot to do my somersault." No biggie.