Dancing Through The Danger

Before the start of the performance, a few kids backstage peeked around the curtain to check out the audience.

What they saw was that a good-sized crowd had come to The Met Sunday afternoon to watch them do international folk dances.

How terrifying.

Sure, it was an audience made up largely of parents, grandparents, aunts and baby sisters. Many had cameras. Some held flowers to be presented to the kids after the show.

Not exactly a tough crowd.

But if you had been a member of the Silver Spurs Dancers at that moment, you might have had one persistent question bouncing around in your head: “What if I forget all my steps?”

Hey, when you look at the program and see that the grade-schoolers will be performing something called “Der Hammerschmidt’gesellen,” you have to figure anything can happen.

But then the show started and the kids did fine.

Several of the costumed teenagers performing the program-opening Macedonian wedding dances seemed nervous. But they hung in there.

That set the tone: Everyone would survive.

Certainly there was budding artistry to be appreciated. Some of the dances were complex. And more than a few of the kids demonstrated an undeniable degree of polish.

But somehow the courage on display was at least equally impressive.

Reading a paper aloud in class or working a math problem on the chalkboard can’t seem quite so intimidating after you’ve performed a Sicillian Tarentella in front of a theater full of people.

Same goes for the waltzes and square dances.

“You know, that takes guts,” said one member of the audience.

Which isn’t to say the dancers didn’t have fun. It’s just that character-building experiences are sometimes easier to appreciate after the fact.

One of the group’s adult leaders noted during the program that it’s always harder to interest boys in dancing than it is to attract girls to the Silver Spurs.

After that, it was hard to watch the boys up on stage and not visualize some imaginary moments in their futures — moments when they would be glad they hadn’t just watched TV when they were young.

Maybe someday someone is going to ask them to dance. Maybe it will be someone they very much want to impress.

And they’ll think back to days like Sunday and perhaps smile just a little.

“Yes,” they’ll be able to say. “I’d love to.”