End-Of-School-Year Blogapalooza, Pt. 1; Dance Dance Dance

Wow; looking at my recent blogging history, there have sure been a lot of "performing arts"-related blog posts appearing lately. What can I say? My kids attend a charter school with a strong performing arts emphasis. They also take private piano lessons (from me!), and they have all taken lessons from local dance studios as well. All these things combined make for a perfect storm of performances in the springtime every year. This spring, our family both watched and participated in a whooooooole lotta performances. Whether it was the school play, the Tucson youth theater productions, or my  piano students' spring recital, we were pretty darn busy.

And that was just the through the first weekend in May! We weren't done yet. Brace yourselves...videos are coming. Lots and lots of performance videos, both in this blog post and the next!

Let's start with all the "dancing" performances. Cindy, a friend of mine and a fellow mother of Great Expectations Academy students, was hired as a dance instructor for the school this year. All the elementary-school kids got to have dance as an elective, which I thought was a cool opportunity! Close to the end of the year, the school held a "dance recital," which was really a chance for each class to perform a dance that "Ms. Cindy" had taught them.

(Aurora's the cute gal in sunglasses and a swimsuit, towards the left)

Aurora's kindergarten class performed to a song from High School Musical called "What Time is It? (Summertime)". The choreography wasn't too complicated (they were six-year-olds, after all), but their enthusiasm was contaigous. They all wore swimsuits and threw around beach balls. Aurora danced with complete abandon. It was adorable.

(Celeste is near the front row, in the silver cape)

Celeste's second-grade class had slightly bulkier costumes; they danced to the Fall Out Boy song "Immortals," from the Disney movie Big Hero 6. Since the main characters in that movie become superheroes, the kids were encouraged to dress up as superheroes themselves. Celeste borrowed a cape from a friend and put on her black knee-high boots. That's my girl.

Lorelai's fifth-grade class did a mash-up of several songs, including the rhythm intro to Anna Kendrick's "Cups (When I'm Gone)" song from Pitch Perfect. Then, they did a bunch of...random dancing? Sorry, I wish I could identify the music they used, but I can't (I'm even sorrier to say I don't have a video of this performance; I hope Lorelai will forgive me! Don't worry, kid, I'll make it up to you in a future blog post).

Sadly, Lorelai felt a little embarrassed about the dance when all was said and done, even though I thought they all did fine. I'm sure part of the reason is that Lorelai is a little shy about dancing in public anyway. Perhaps her class would have been better served by performing a longer routine set to a single song, so the whole thing would have been more memorable. Maybe next year!

But this wasn't the only dancing going on in our family...Celeste had a big recital coming up as well, courtesy of Sahuarita Dance.

Celeste has performed with Sahuarita Dance a few times now, and she has been absolutely adorable every time. This year was no exception. She took a combination ballet/jazz dance class every Tuesday after school. It was kind of a rocky year (her original teacher moved away early in the year, and her new teachers were competent but very young), but overall she still enjoyed it.

 

I confess, I wasn't able to watch or participate in Celeste's dance class very much this year. She was always dancing right when I was teaching lessons at home, so I rarely took her to class and didn't really get to know any of her teachers or fellow students (or parents of the students, for that matter). She had moments when she got frustrated and tired out. But as the recital neared, she put on her positive face (which she wears very well!), and gave it her all.

 I loved the dance number her class performed. The song was cute and the choreography was sassy. As usual, there were a lot of dance numbers to sit through to watch Celeste's number (Sahuarita Dance has a lot of students & classes), but it was worth the wait.

 

 

At the end of this year, Celeste told me she was getting a little "bored" of dance...I'm starting to suspect she may be moving on to other interests. Part of me wants to encourage her to continue; she is the least athletically inclined of all our girls, and dance is a good way to keep her moving. In addition, if she does one more dance recital, she will receive a special "five-year" trophy from the studio, which I'm sure will thrill her. On the other hand, of course, if she chooses to skip dance, that's more money in our pockets and more time after school to get things done! I just hope Celeste makes a choice that leaves her happy.

Either way, we were all so proud of her. I thought she looked beautiful and professional. Grandma Barrett was able to attend as well, and loved the show. Celeste is such a beautiful girl and I love watching her perform, because her beautiful smile and her enthusiasm is always genuine when she is on stage. She may keep growing bigger, but in my heart she will always be my "tiny dancer."