Dance Recitals and Rugby Games

On Saturday Dale and I went to the Rio Tinto statium in Salt Lake City and watched our Alma Mater BYU tackle the national champoinship in Rugby!

Gwen is the one on the far right with her arms out.

We also went to my 4-year-old niece's dance recital.

Both were intensely fun for different reasons.

Rugby won me over from my luke warm interest in football after the first 15 mintues.  Why?  No time outs.  The ball is always live, the clock is always running.  If a guy gets tackled, he releases the ball strategically to one of his team mates who then keeps running to the goal until the other team steals the ball somehow.  Two 40-minute quarters and a 10 minute half time.  That is a game I can commit to.

The dance recital was for ages 3-18 and had almost 20 different performances of eight different age group teams.  I really liked picking a favorite among the dancers--usually the one with the most stage presence which to me usually means the most talent--and watching that one person through out the performance.  I especially liked it when this person ended up being a girl who was a little chubbier or not the prettiest girl.  This was perfectly entertaining until a 15 year old girl caught me watching and then it all of a sudden felt really creepy.

The BYU Rugby team has 30 players on both strings and represents 8 different countries on the team.  Our favorite player was a guy from South Africa who played the kicker position.  He was so intense to watch prepare and he didn't miss once.  The guy we came to support was a previous companion of Dale's from his LDS mission in Slovakia and is from England.  Lots of different Polynesian countries represented, as well as Europe and Africa.

The level of coordination among the young dance teams was awesome.  Our girl Gwen did two different dances and I think she was one of two best people on the team.  In the picture above, you can see how she is going full out on the choreography.  There are 3 other girls showing various representations of the arms out move.  If you can't see how this is adorably entertaining, I question your humanity.

Rugby people watching included education on the difference between a Euro mullet and a hick mullet.  There were plenty of samples of both varieties to provide in-depth analysis.

Dance Recital people watching reminded me of synchronized swimming meets as a little kid.  Elaborate costumes, schillacked hair dos, kids learning fine motor skills, and teens in the best shape that they are likely to be in for the rest of their life.  It made me want to start a synchro league around here!