Dancing with Future Stars

About three weeks ago, I was contacted by a mom I met through round-about circumstances. She is Indian, is involved in the India Association of Tri-Cities and knows about Niranjana. So she invited our little girl to be part of an impromptu, short-lived preschool dance group for a Republic Day recital on Jan. 31.

So the night before we started swimming lessons (level 2) and YMCA indoor soccer, we went to Angelina's house to meet her 5-year-old son and check out some dance moves. Then two days later, we went to another lady's basement for an attempt at practice. Then I left work early Mondays and Fridays for two weeks to go to rehearsal. Andy took her a couple times, too.

I feel like Niranjana has made some new friends — and she got her Indian head wobble back within the first 10 minutes of the first meeting. And it's been good for me to be the only white person in the room. The moms are nice and are starting to warm up to me.

Tonight was the final living-room rehearsal before Sunday's event. The girls dressed in their sparkly dresses, the boys in their outfits (sorry, I don't know the proper names for the clothing) and they practiced to this song from the movie Boot Polish, "Nanhe Munhe Bacche Teri."

It's a classic Bollywood song about a brother and sister who were orphaned and live in the slums, where a nice man has taken them in and is challenging them to think about their futures. Some of the movements translate to "we have the world in our hands."

The troupe does pretty well. When Niranjana focuses, she does great. It helped for me to go sit out in the car and read, as my presence was too much of a distraction. Big sigh....

What they lack in precision they make up for in enthusiasm. And cuteness. Hopefully. We'll be there Sunday with our bangles and bindis at 2 p.m., Battelle Auditorium in north Richland, admission is free. The little kids, thankfully, are among the first to dance.