Dancing Queens

My girls had their dance recital this weekend.  Oh was it fun!  All 3 of them chose to dance this year and even though Lily lost interest about 2 months ago she hung in there until the recital (well..technically I made her since we'd purchased the costume but still..she did it).  Julia now has a little bit of performance fever and says she wants to stay in dance so she can keep doing recitals.  Emma, who dreams of being a professional dancer, was in heaven.  She was full of energy and excitement all weekend.  

Julia took a tap/ballet class and was in 2 dances in the recital.  One dance was really early in the recital and then she went again towards the end.  So she got to watch a lot of it from the audience which she loved.  She also loved coming home and watching herself dance on the computer from the video we took.

Lily took at tap/ballet/jazz combo class and was in 3 dances.  Her costume was adorable and she look absolutely precious on stage.  What she lacked in remembering the dance she sure made up for in cuteness!

Emma takes a tap/ballet/jazz combo class and is also on the pre-team (pre competitive team) class.  She was in 7 dances - three for her combo class, the opening and finale, a dance with pre-team and a solo.  Emma first mentioned that she wanted to do a solo a few months ago.  I couldn't tell if she was serious or not but apparently she'd choreographed a dance.  She set up a private lesson with her dance teacher and LuGina seemed to think it was good enough for the recital though she encouraged her to change her song.  Emma did the dance for me at home and I was impressed that she was doing it.  Fast forward to Friday - we get to the dress rehearsal and it's time for Emma to practice her dance.  I was standing there to take pictures and OH MY GOODNESS was I blown away.  I was so emotional watching my girl out there dance.  She commanded the stage, used the stage and put tons of energy into the dance.  I just couldn't believe it.  The older girls on the team were so, so sweet and gave her tons of encouragement.  She was beaming!  

Saturday was recital day.  Emma was full of nervous energy all morning.  It's a good thing she had swim team to get some energy out!  Luckily her solo was the 6th dance of the recital.  I think I was more nervous than she was though!  I was a room mom but got to sneak in the back of the auditorium to watch her solo.  Again, she completely rocked it!  Again, I was crying - I was just so proud of my baby.  Not only did she have the confidence just to get out on stage but she made up the dance and then performed it flawlessly even adding in a split she hadn't done the night before!   I think what made me so emotional was just the confidence in getting out there and performing in front of 500 people.  I am just so amazed that at 9 years old she would get out there and do it.  I hope she always has that confidence!  

I'll post videos for anyone who wants to see them!