Grown up cowgirls?

[sk8ergalgal]

Okay so I am working on a bring toys to life themed skating show this year and we are doing cowgirls for one of the numbers. There are 5 girls and they are mostly older 10,12 years old. I made up the number but am now hearing that they think its too young for them. What can I do?

[Isk8NYC]

What music are you using?

10-12 is when they start to give up the cute routines and look for more mature songs and programs.

You might get away with music from "Annie (Oakley) Get Your Gun" but anything racier, like "Man I Feel Like A Woman" by Shania Twain, would rattle the parents' cages. (Rightfully so, IMO)

[sk8ergalgal]

We are doing cotton eye joe for the music.

[Skittl1321]

We did a group number from "Annie" and part of it mentioned cowboys, heros, cops, and robbers and the middle school age kids (and me, since that was my "height" group) had to act that out and they LOVED it, and got really into the costumes. So maybe let them decide on costumes? That way you aren't dressing them up in little red vests with sherriffs stars. It could just be jeans and a plaid shirt- westernish. So you know they are comfortable with it.

Also point out that they are doing it to entertain other people. And little kids in the audience, and adults will really enjoy it.

Can you "age up" (ETA: I do not mean sex up) the actions? What kind of acting are they doing in the role? Is that childish to them?

[Clarice]

I like Cotton-Eye Joe, and don't think it's too young, but what if you tried "Hoe Down Throwdown" by Miley Cyrus? It's really more country than western, but I think you could get away with it. It was a big hit at a show of ours.

[sk8tmum]

Thank you for NOT letting them do anything "suggestive" at that age; I had the joy? of seeing a six year old girl do a very inappropriate interpretive number to a very sexy Top 10 hit recently, with costume to match ... It makes you a bit queasy to see ...

Anyways. Is it the choreography, costumes or music that they are concerned about? Maybe they think the steps are too easy or too cute? At that age, "too young" can mean lots of different things, even just the way you want them to do their hair.

[sk8ergalgal]

Well it seems to be the choreography that they think looks to young for the girls age. We are keeping the costume very simple and inexpensive.. they are going to have cowboy hats, bandanas, a plaid shirt with a tank top and jean shorts/skirt. There is a little bit of line dancing in the number, along with some hand gestures ex: pretending they have one of those cowboy ropes... hand clapping in the routine. Completely changing the song is not really an option at this point.

[Isk8NYC]

Watch some "line dancing" videos to get ideas for choreography/gestures. They really know how to "whoop it up."