This Saturday, Seaside City of California had its annual youth talent show, which has a history of more than 20 years. The dance group where I learn Mexican folklorico presented four dances. I went there to shoot the video.

Two of the four dances were children’s and two were danced by teens. One of them was a five girl group dance, not folklorico, but modern dance. I had been watching their practice and dared not say they would win, because the girls were rather relaxed in dancing, while the music requires more force. But today, in their dance costumes, they did a pretty good job and won the first prize of their category.

The other dance was La Negra by two sisters. I had no idea they would present this one. In the dance group, it had always been danced by children, but in the recent weeks, adults had been practicing. I realized then that it was for them to practice. La Negra has a quick rhythm and happy tune and is not short, very suitable for a competition candidate. Today the two sisters, one in yellow and one in green, danced gracefully on the stage under the spot lights. Normally when the group gives presentations, it is either during daytime or on the floor of a room in the evening without any stage effects. Today I felt that they danced exceptionally well. Their colorful robes went up and down giving a dazzling effect to the eye.

I stood by the camcorder all through the whole competition. When it was the turn for La Negra, I was exceptionally careful to take the best shots. I zoomed in and out and followed the dancers closely. I believed I had got their best show on tape.

After I went back home and looked at the tape, the effect was rather nice, but after several presentations, I found no trace of La Negra. I looked at the schedule and searched accordingly. What I found caused me to curse myself: I recorded everything but La Negra! I only recorded the sisters when they came out from behind the curtain to answer questions. I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched the video: a whole show simply vanished! I thought now that I must have forgotten to change “pause” to “record”, but the viewfinder was such a small place I could not possible have neglected the indicator. Maybe I was too much concentrated on the dancers.

Well, there was a way to fix this. I saw a member of my dance group video taping the show. I could ask him to make a copy for me. Besides, a TV station staff was there too, but I was not sure they would shoot everything, since they only needed a slip for news.

Yet, even though I could get a copy from the co-member, his viewpoint would definitely be different from mine. Another person’s video and his use of the camera could never show what I thought had I been doing the shooting.

Of course I can ask the sisters to dance for my camera later when we have our class, but then there won’t be the stage effect and what’s more, I am doing it only for my own keep’s sake, why should they give me a special show?

Well, such things do happen in life. Beauty disappears quickly and what is left is a forever regret.