that is maxx in february of 2009 standing in front to the billy elliot show in nyc. he and i went to see that show for a few reasons...
i LOVE the movie billy elliot. it has the best ending of any movie ever. i could watch that last scene over and over again until the laundry piled all around me and i suffocated (which is kind of what is happening here). when that stage guy says, “billy, your family’s here.” and you see his face. and then the part when the dad sees him come out on stage and gasps. i get shivers. and i am not really a ballet lover. but a lover of human experience and parents and children. and artists who dream. and that one moment (which is really more like a lifetime of moments) when a parent looks at their child and sees that they are a part of them and yet by the grace of God they are so much more. i love all that stuff.
maxx at this stage of his life LOVED dancing. he was still dancing in the nutcracker every year. he still loves dancing. but running and singing have taken over. i didn’t really fall in love with the movie billy elliot until i had fallen in love already with a son that loved dancing. it was a great movie that showed me (a non dancer) how someone could feel about dancing. and about how the support of a parent (who has no understanding of dancing) can make or break a child’s heart...
i had watched a couple of youtube videos from billy elliot and i was BLOWN AWAY by the dance scenes in this movie. like i said, NOT a dancer. but something about these scenes took my breath away and i wanted to see them live. and with someone who loved dancing. as donald miller says in blue like jazz, ““Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.” i learned to love dance because i saw maxx love dance.
the most emotional moment in the show is when billy recites from memory a letter that his mom wrote to him (she died when he was a baby.) on stage his mom appears and sings some of the letter over his reading. so in honor of mother’s day weekend i am going to highlight this “stage mother” today and another “stage mother” on monday. as opposed to yesterday’s “stage mother”, carrie’s psycho mom. not highlighting her. i love how at the end of the letter the teacher says, “she must have been a very special woman” and billy replies, “no, she was just me mum.” i don’t have to be a very special woman. in their eyes i just have to be their mother. and perhaps dead to truly be appreciated. but let’s not take this analogy too far.
but as much as i LOVE billy’s mom and her wonderful letter... when i star in this show in my heavenly appearance, i am going to be billy’s chain-smoking, continually cursing dance teacher. so i can strut my stuff in the born to boogie number. where you will all know it is heaven because i will be able to do that cartwheel at the end of the number.