A sad rehearsal and an awesome recital!

After a quick trip to Ferriday last Thursday night (the 2nd) to pick up the rest of my kids, I hurried back to Jackson on Friday for Katherine’s and Caroline’s dress rehearsals for their dance showcase (aka a recital). It was stressed repeatedly that anyone who missed dress rehearsal would not be in the showcase, so I was taking a chance driving back the same day, but we actually made it half and hour early (and no, I didn’t speed, Mom).

We had been informed early by the dance company that there would be 2 showcases, one morning, one afternoon, and our family was one of the few “lucky” ones that would have a kid in both. So we would have to show up for both dress rehearsals and both shows. Yay us! I didn’t need that Saturday anyway. Caroline’s dress rehearsal came first. Her class only had 6 girls in it, so Mandy (the teacher) paired them up for their dance as 3 groups of 2. The song they danced to was “The Gift of a Friend” from a Tinkerbelle movie. It was very sweet. They started out sitting back to back, then waved, hugged, skipped, and twirled with each other while the song goes on about how wonderful it is to have a friend. The problem was, Caroline’s partner got stage fright. And, like, wouldn’t move an inch the entire dance. So when the other kids stood up and started skipping and dancing with each other, she was stuck trying to talk her partner into getting up and dancing with her. It was a horrible 3 minutes! Her partner (Danielle) was sobbing, Caroline was frustrated and stressing, and confusion reigned. It was everything you could want from a rehearsal. I wished I could’ve video-ed it, but only pictures were allowed (none at all during the showcase the next day). To the right, all the other girls have skipped away, but Caroline is trying to show her teacher that Danielle won’t move. Here are a few more pictures of her frustration:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much irony as “Gift of a Friend” played out in the background… Heh heh. Of course, a good mother probably wouldn’t have laughed at their child’s frustration, and certainly not for the entire 3 minutes, so I guess I lose a few points from my score…yeah.

 

 

 

 

Their rehearsal was such a disaster that they had to do it again, and this time Danielle wouldn’t even go on stage, so Caroline got to dance by herself, miming the partner sections. This worked MUCH better, but everyone watching got a chuckle out of watching that poor baby dance by herself to that particular song. She loved dancing on the stage though, and was thoroughly happy after the second run-through!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I just really liked this picture. They played in the black lights before the rehearsal started, and her costume went radioactive! It glowed. Fun stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

We went home, unpacked, then headed back for Katherine’s recital about 2 hours later. I wish I had reminded her to smile. She looked bored the whole time. She wasn’t, but didn’t know this was my only chance to take pictures. The next day, during the actual show, she beamed. Sigh. She’s also kinda pink, thanks to the lighting…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning I left the house at 9:45 to pick up Marci and Greta (who would also be in the morning showcase), and the rest of our families would follow a little later. The show started at 11:00, Caroline was finished with her dance before 11:10, and we had to sit there until the show was over and awards were given out about 12:45. The last 45 minutes were torture. Turns out, an hour was the cutoff for the kids’ (and yes, I include Chris in this instance) patience. Every time a new dance class would file onto the stage, my kids would whimper (again, Chris included). I love watching dance in any form, and the show was an interesting mix, but I was starving and so ready for it to end. We hurried with Marci’s family to get lunch because Katherine had to be back by 1:00.

We took a quick detour back to our house to pick up the other car, because we didn’t intend to follow the rules for the next showcase. Chris and the other kids sat on an aisle so they could slip out after Katherine’s dance, right at the beginning of the show. This is a big no-no, but I didn’t want to watch Chris cry in public, so I suggested it. Elizabeth sat with me and we stayed for the whole thing. (You kind of have to, if you want your kid back at the end!) I was so ready to get home that I forgot to take extra pictures of Katherine afterwards, which I regret. And she smiled the entire dance and put more effort into it than I had seen from her the entire year! Oh well, I could’ve bought videos, but at $35 each, it would’ve cost $70 to have videos of their short little dances! We didn’t get home until 5:15, so that was a 7 and 1/2 hour recital, with a break for lunch. Whew! Then Chris and I asked Daniel to babysit and went out for dessert with Marci and Dan, which was a fantastic way to finish the long day!