Dance Recital

First Pre-Recital Picture

 Good morning Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I will give you fair warning about today’s post:  this is a Proud Parent Post, heavily laden with pictures of Kayla, because Saturday was the day of Kayla’s dance recitals.  The recitals are an EVENT!  Her dance studio has two recitals, one at 2 and one at 6:30 that last about two hours each.  There are classes in baton, jazz, tap dancing, ballet, and gymnastics for girls from age 4 to age 18 or 19 (seniors in high school.)  The teacher does an amazing job of scheduling things so that each class has a chance to perform their routines. 

There are at least three dance studios in our small town, and I think that each one picks a Saturday in May to rent the high school’s auditorium, but our recital is usually the last one.  It is an annual rite of passage from spring into summer.  (Yes, I know the calendar says it is still spring, but down here, we consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, and as of this week have already had temperatures soaring into the low to mid-90’s.  Most of the schools in this area finish for the year in the next week.) 

Darwin Barges In

 My Mom came to visit for the recital, and took a picture of the three of us, with Kayla in her baton costume.  She took the first picture, then was lucky enough to get this one of Darwin barging in to the photo also.  Every once in a while something happens to remind me how very tall he really is, and this was one of those times.  I would guess from this picture that he is at least 5 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs! 

Anyway, with Darwin’s help we were able to get out the door and to the auditorium by 1:00 p.m., when the doors opened for audience seating.  Past experience has taught us that if you don’t show up an hour early, then you will not be able to get very good seats, and we needed end seats so that I could scoot in and out to help Kayla with her costume changes.  Since I chose to sit on the first floor of the auditorium, so I could sit with Mark and Mom, each time Kayla’s costume needed changing, I rushed up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the high school to reach the changing room, then rushed back down to get back to my seat in time to see her routine.  The multiple trips reminded me why I really hate elliptical training machines, Stairmasters and all other exercise equipment of similar ilk. 

I put Mark in charge of the camera because getting pictures during the recital is tricky between the lighting (dark in the audience, light on stage) and the movement.  He got this photo of Kayla during her baton routine.  If you look on your left, you can see the baton twirling around in a blur. 

Baton Routine

 The next routine was her tap dance routine.  She was concentrating!  (The tap dance and the closing routines were the only repeats between both recitals.)

Concentrating on her tap dance routine

 The first recital ended at 4, so the four of us (me, Mark, Kayla and Mom) hopped over to the local Pizza Hut for a very early dinner, had time to run back to the house for about 20 minutes to change costumes and freshen up her hair and make-up, and then get back to the auditorium at 5:30 for the 6:30 show.  By 5:30, a good part of the auditorium was already full, but we still managed to find end seats.  I estimate that there were between 150 to 200 people present at each of the two recitals.  For this second recital, her first routine was the jazz routine. 

Jazz

Jazz 2

It wasn’t until the very end of the routine that she saw Mark, who had slipped up the aisle, taking pictures, but after that suddenly she relaxed and starting smiling.  You can see this in the picture Mark took at the end of her gymnastics class’s  routine…..

Final Gymnastics Pose

And in her ballet routine…..

Ballet Dance

And in the closing!

Closing Routine!

So kudos to Mark for the pictures he took and kudos to Kayla for her time and effort in dancing!

Have a great day everyone!
 Nancy