A ‘Seeking for Diamonds’ Dance

This story happened in 1985. My daughter Lia was in the kindergarten. One day said to me, ‘Mommy we are going to dance on the stage. Mrs. Nurmi had made me and my friends practice the Rainbow dance’. ‘Was it? How’s the dance?’, I asked her. While singing the song she practiced the Rainbow dance in front of me. Several days passed, and she said to me, ‘Mommy I wasn’t in the Rainbow dance anymore. Mrs. Nurmi chose me to join the Happy dance team’. ‘Its OK honey, can you?’. Again, in front of my eyes she practiced the Happy dance. Two days later she informed me, ‘Mommy finally I joined the Seeking for Diamonds dance (in Indonesian: Tari Mendulang Intan)’. She practiced the last dance everyday. When the time to the stage came, she, with a peasant costume, was very eager to go to hall where the stage was. At the hall her teacher told me and my husband to take a seat while she asking Lia to sit with her dancer friends near the stage. The show had begun. Seeking for Diamonds dance was placed as the fifth dance. When the second dance was over, Mrs. Nurmi asked me to go to the back stage. ‘She said that she will not dance…’,Mrs. Nurmi told me. I bent to Lia, ‘Why honey, you had practiced everyday….’ She whispered to me, ‘Mommy I want to dance the Rainbow dance..’. I wondered. ‘Why honey…?’. Lia sobbed, ‘I want to wear necklace, drop earrings and golden bracelets just like Laura. I like the Rainbow dance, mommy, why Mrs. Nurmi switched me to another dance? If she didn’t switched me I will wear costume just like Laura’s’. Mrs. Nurmi asked me to force Lia to the stage when the time came. ‘See honey, you have to come to the stage and dance the Seeking for Diamonds dance. After that we can go to the shop and buy anything you want, OK?’, first she didn’t react. She still sobbed. I told her, ‘You can buy the new shoes or back pack…or such a costume with necklace, drop earrings and bracelets…’. She stopped sobbing, ‘Really mom? I want such a costume..’. ‘OK honey, go join your friend, the dance will start soon’. So, there she was, on the stage, dancing the Seeking for Diamonds dance, but with lazy, angry expression. After the dance was over we went to the mall looked for the costume, as there weren’t any, she decided to have a new backpack, visited the KFC restaurant and came home happily. It was very realistic. A girl age 5 like Lia prefered to wear glamorous costume, with necklace, drop earrings and bracelets than a simple one, a peasant costume. But she would not insist to dance the Rainbow dance if from the start she didn’t chosen as a Rainbow dancer. This should be a lesson for kindergarten teacher……