Miles's blog

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

It is a truism of parenting that you take more pride in the achievements of your child than you do of your own. (At least for most people, I suppose maybe it is different for Nobel Prize winners or Oscar winners.) Those who know me have heard incessantly about the accomplishments of my daughter Megan. I want to show you why I am so proud of her.

As most of you know, Meg is a professional dancer who lives in New York City. Meg is in several dance companies, but the most successful is Alexandra Beller’s company. Meg auditioned for this company about a year ago, winning a spot over literally hundreds of applicants. I traveled to New York in June in part to see Meg perform with Alex’s company. As always, although the piece is not my cup of tea, I was so impressed with my daughter I could not help but sit and think to myself “how is the beautiful, talented young woman the product of half of my DNA?” (On the other hand, sometimes she is sarcastic, impatient with incompetence, and witty, and then I completely see myself in her.)

So often when I watch Meg perform I think back on her first days as a dancer. Meg found dance herself, really. Like most parents we put Meg in all kinds of classes and sports when she was little: ice skating, gymnastics, acting, t-ball, soccer, etc. She at first seemed to gravitate toward acting. Meg went to a performing arts camp in Steamboat Springs at age 13 to take acting classes. Part of the curriculum contained dance class. Meg had taken some classes when much younger, but seemed no more attracted to dance than anything else. I do fondly remember the first time I saw her dance, however, a cheesy and cute performance to the Jackson Five’s ABC.

Meg came back from camp informing us that she wanted to pursue dancing. Her mother found a tiny studio close to their home where a CU grad student taught neighbor kids. Once we could see she was serious about dancing, she moved to the well-regarded Cleo Parker Robinson studio where she took mostly modern dance classes, not much ballet. Usually children start with ballet which is, of course, the foundation of all dance.

Not long after starting classes Meg auditioned for the Denver School of the Arts. Most of those who audition start dancing at five or six. I was skeptical, but surprisingly Meg was accepted, with the requirement that she improve her ballet skills. Meg’s mother found another studio close to home which emphasized ballet.

At DSA Meg was pretty clearly behind most of the other dancers at first. I remember going to see her perform in her first year and she was always in the back often with very little to do. Two DSA seniors had been accepted into dance programs in college, one at Fordham and one at University of Utah. That was a big deal. Wow, they must be good, I thought. I wonder how poor, little, late-starting Meg was going to catch up. Still, as time went on she moved to the front of the stages and was given more to do. Every summer Meg went away to work on her dancing, spending two years in North Carolina at the American Dance Festival.

I got so nervous watching her during those early years. I would sit there waiting for the lights to come up, sending Meg a telegraphic message that all would go well. I feared she would screw up and then kick herself for days. As a perfectionist Meg struggled with learning to dance. Many times I picked her up a crying girl from dance class, convinced she was wasting her time trying to become a dancer. But she never gave up (obviously persistence is a trait she acquired from her mother).

During Meg’s junior year in high school we went east to explore colleges. Meg continued in her desire to be a dance major and ultimately a professional dancer, and although a part of me hoped she would give it up, we never discouraged her. We toured several places in the New York area but Meg felt most comfortable at New York University, only the second best dance program in America after Julliard. We attended NYU’s end of year performance for graduating seniors and MFA students. They were incredibly good. I will never forget Meg turning to me after the first dance and saying “I have to go here.” “Yeah, right,” I thought. I figured there was no way.

During her next performance at DSA I ran into the dance teacher and told him Meg had loved NYU and wanted to go there. I asked him if that was realistic. “Yeah, I think it is,” he told me. I was surprised. I just never realized how good Meg was.

A year later we were back in New York for auditions. Meg and I had already been to Florida State where she not only auditioned, but had received an acceptance only a couple of weeks later. By now I had started to grasp how good a dancer Meg was. Still, NYU was the big time. Not only the best program she had applied for, but the one place her heart was set on going. Her mother took her to that audition. She called me to tell me Meg had made it past the first part of the audition and had been called back for a solo. Our fingers were crossed.

Of course Meg was accepted into and graduated from NYU. After spending a year in Austria she has been working as a professional dancer for two years (along with other jobs to pay the rent.) Last month Alex Beller’s company performed in Boston. Here is a video of Meg dancing with the company. This is not the piece I saw, and I quite like this one. It is called “Egg.” Alex is in white, the company in dark clothes. Meg is the performer who is synchronized with Alex. It is too bad you can’t hear what they are saying. Meg calls out to Alex when Alex leaves to deal with the other dancers. The dance is about being a mother, so Alex has to run around and take care of everyone. Meg has to hold position and yell to Alex, “I’m balancing here, Alex, you left me in a balance.”