Hi, mom.

Hi.

I have an idea for a podcast.

Oh, okay. What’s your idea?

So, since I had a dance competition yesterday – no, on Sunday, sorry – I thought we could do an improvised podcast about dance.

Okay, that sounds good. That’s one of your passions. 

Yeah. 

Okay, well, what do you want to tell us about?

Well, speaking of passions, in school, we’re actually doing passion projects, and I made mine about dance.

Okay, and what – what does your project involve?

It involves, like, writing about your passion, and you can make something, like, I might make a slideshow of, like, me at dance class, like, doing stuff, and pictures of my friends and stuff like that.

Okay, and are you working on that on a computer?

We’re working on, like, computers, but you also kind of need to work on it at home, too. 

Mm hmm. 

But, we haven’t been doing it lately, we’ve been focusing on math.

Well, that’s good, too… 

I guess. 

Okay. Well, tell me about your dance competition.

Um, so, I did my solo, my duo, then I had my lyrical dance, which I get lifted up into the air like a birdie. 

Mm-hmm

I had my ballet dance, which is like a quartet, because it’s only four people. And then I had my musical theatre, which has, like, at least a million people.

Mm-hmm. I’d say at least 20 anyway.

Yeah. 

Yeah, that sounds… and what – what song do you do your musical theatre piece to? 

I do it to a song called ‘I Won’t Grow Up’, from the movie, Peter Pan, which you should watch, because it’s awesome.

It is a great movie. There are some issues with the movie in this day and age – some politically incorrect issues in the movie, but overall, it’s a pretty fantastic notion. And do you actually sing the words? 

Um, some people do –  did at the beginning, so did I, but now we just lip-synch them. Like, if it says, “I won’t grow up”, I just lip-synch it.

Okay. And that’s how it works when you’re doing a dance competition in the musical theatre category, you lip-synch the words and you do a dance to accompany it, and you take on the character that you’re playing. And they can really be a lot of fun. 

Yes.

The older dancers from your school, did a dance I really loved, also in the musical theatre category.

I know what you’re thinking –  it’s ‘Come From Away’, and it’s my favorite thing, but it’s, like, five minutes long, but it’s the funniest thing ever. They have a moose in it – not a real one, though.

They do have a moose in it. And it is a funny piece, because of the whole scramble of preparation, the spirit of it. But it came from a really tragic, tragic situation. It came from 9-11, when the World Trade Center towers in New York were destroyed by planes flying into them. And what happened is all the planes were grounded or diverted, and the planes that were close to us were told to land. There were a whole lot of planes that landed in Gander, Newfoundland, because Gander used to have a huge, huge international airport, when jets couldn’t fly as far as they do today, and so, if you were coming from Europe, you always landed in Gander to fuel up and then keep going across the continent of North America, wherever you ended up. But then, it emptied out because jets became more efficient and could carry more fuel, um, so they didn’t need the airport, but all the facilities were still there, and so Gander, which is a tiny, tiny town, in, I think, Northeastern Newfoundland, they were able to accept a whole lot of the planes, and Newfoundlanders are known for being incredibly hospitable, generous people, and so the community all got together and scrambled to make sure all of the people’s needs were fulfilled when they landed, and they took them into their houses and tried to help them, as they were stranded far, far from home after this huge tragedy.

I just thought it was something they made up for fun.

No, it’s a real story. And it’s actually a Broadway musical right now that’s doing incredibly well. So, it’s a pretty neat story. 

Yeah. 

So, you told us musical theatre, lyrical, which is a kind of, ah…

You wear, like, kind of flowy dresses. 

Yeah

And it’s very slow. And usually, the songs are pretty sad. Which, you know…

…some of them, yeah, it’s a more kind of poetic form of dance, isn’t it, that combines ballet and jazz and some contemporary. And what song did you dance your lyrical number to?

Ours is, um, a song by Michael Jackson, but it’s a cover. It’s called ‘Heal the World’.

Mm-hmm. And that also came from a big initiative. We’ll talk about that another time. And – you told us about your solo and duo – what style were those in?

They were both jazz, and something amazing about my solo – so, not only did I get first place in my category, but that was only three people, including me, – out of almost about thirty people who did any kind of solo like tap, lyrical, jazz, contemporary. All that…ballet… 

Hip Hop

Hip hop. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. I came first out of all of them, because I had the highest score, so, I got a scholarship for a workshop in – is it Toronto? 

Yes. 

Yes – it’s a two day workshop on July 26th, and 27th, but there’s only one problem – on the 24th and 25th, I have a highland dance competition in Fredericton, but you said that if we can find a cheap flight, just after the afternoon of the 25th, we’ll just get on a plane and go to Toronto like…

We’ll see what we can do. We will try for sure. So, that’s – you won that scholarship for having the highest mark in your division, which was ‘mini pre-competitive’, which means all the dancers nine years and under. So, congratulations on that, Lila. That was a huge accomplishment.

I’m mainly excited for the plane, ‘cause I heard planes have chocolate pudding.

I don’t know that planes these days have chocolate pudding. You’ve been on a plane. What are you talking about?

Oh, yeah, but wasn’t – when we went to Poland, wasn’t there, like, chocolate pudding or something? 

I can’t remember.

I remember. You have a photo of me watching a show while eating something, and my face was literally covered in chocolate.

Maybe there was chocolate pudding. One of my favorite, favorite meals on a plane. Were – coming back from Poland, I would always transfer in Heathrow, which is a really big airport in London, and coming from Heathrow, we’d always get scones and clotted cream. And it was so delicious! Now, airplane food sometimes has a reputation of not being so great, but the stuff coming out of Heathrow – those scones and the clotted cream – were amazing. And I also remember, on a Dutch airline, having really, really good meals. So it’s not always true that airplane food isn’t great.

All I remember, is that I like chocolate stuff.

Well, don’t we all? It must run in the family. 

Coming from you. 

It’s genetic. I’m sorry.

I have this app, where you make emojis, and I made my mom, and then I found this thing that had her, like, thinking about chocolate and a bunch of chocolate surrounding her and I sent it to her because it was, like, suits her so much…

Maybe we’ll have to find a picture of that.

I sent it to you on messenger, so I’m pretty sure it should be there. 

Okay.

Yeah.

And next week you have another competition coming up. This was your last stage dance competition – your last jazz, lyrical…

But I still have a recital with…is it Limelight?

Your recital is at the same theatre where the Limelight competition was…

Phewf! ‘Cause that’s the only theatre I know where to go – like, I know where every room is, like, I take this turn, there’s a theatre, take that turn, there’s a bath. I just have it memorized in my brain, it’s like a map. I know it by the back of my hand or…?

Like the back of your hand. 

I know it like the back of my hand. 

Yeah

I can walk it with my eyes closed. In fact, I have, but then I stopped doing it, ‘cause I rammed into a locker one time.

Okay, well, that’s a prudent choice on your part. And once that’s all done, what happens? 

Highland Games!

Highland Games. We’re going to have a very, very busy summer.

But, the best part – we’re going to hotels, most of them have breakfast, like Fruit Loops, and they have pools, and it’s a hotel. And my second oldest brother, the middle child, Mikka, is also coming, ’cause I’m pretty sure he’s piping at almost all of them. 

Yeah, well, he’s piping in two of them. And you’re dancing in four of them.

Are we going to the Antigonish games?

We are going to the Antigonish Highland Games.

‘Cause, there’s this girl named Charlotte in my Highland class, and she said they have a log throwing contest, and they have a cotton candy stand.

I think we might see some of that excitement at the Moncton Highland Games as well. 

Oh, yeah. 

Yup. And before that, even, you have two competitions in Dartmouth. 

Oh, my god. 

You’ll be fine. It will be good practice and it will keep us all busy. 

Mm-hmm.

For sure. Okay, well, Lila. I think we’ve been sitting here waiting for your brother’s piano lesson to be over. 

Mm-hmm. One of them is done. 

Yes. One is waiting outside of the car, because we locked him out so that we could record our podcast, and the other one is about to finish, so we’d better wrap things up, say goodbye to everybody and thank you for listening. And we’ll chat again soon. 

Yeah, bye!

Bye.