Dancing Kitty

Our sweet Kitty was recently invited to take a ballet exam administered by the Royal Academy of Dance.  My sister accuses me quite often of being an uncultured swine - mostly because I don't share her obsession with Diet Dr. Pepper.  I always ignore her insults.  However, in the world of ballet, I think she might be right.  I really am an uncultured swine.  I don't know anything about anything.  Heck, I barely even know how to put my daughter's hair into a bun every week for class.

So...when Kitty was presented with this chance, her swine mother thought, "Nah...oink oink.  It costs a hundred bucks. Oink oink."

Her less-swiney father thought, "Wow!  We should give our daughter every opportunity to succeed."

Uncultured swine loses again.

Even after we told Kitty that she would have to practice her routine EVERY night and not complain about it, she wanted to take the exam.  We even told her it would be challenging.  Her smooth response was, "I like a challenge."

Good girl.

Kitty practiced every night for weeks, without fail and without complaining.  Then the day of the exam arrived.  We weren't allowed to watch - I just dropped her at the door and came back 2 hours later.  I bought her a surprise while I was out killing time.

She was in good spirits after the exam and said she felt like she did a good job.

So we went to pizza to celebrate.

Then we went home so she could have her surprise.  Kitty named the unicorn Majesty.

Weeks later, we finally received the results of her exam.  The suspense of waiting for the scores nearly gave Michael an ulcer.  It nearly made me stuff a sock in his mouth so he couldn't keep asking about it.

So how did Kitty do?  Well, first you have to know how the scoring works.  Being an uncultured swine, I had no idea.  Let me enlighten you.

"Dancers are given scores in various areas such as timing, musicality, alignment, etc. Points are added together for a total out of 100.  Grades are as follows: 

75-100 points = Distinction (gold)
55-74 points = Merit (silver)
40-54 points = Pass (bronze) 
39-0 points = Standard not met

While scores are based on a 100 point system, candidates are scored very differently from standard academic grades—e.g. a score of 77 at school may result in a “C” but for a ballet exam, a 77 is a very good score and considered a Distinction—scores in the 90's are almost unheard of."

Feeling smart now?  Here is Kitty's score:

Squeal!  I am so proud of her!  She worked hard and was successful.

Good thing her swine mother let her take the exam.

Hooray for Kitty!