After all that practicing, she was very excited to show off at her recital. I was less excited, not because I didn't want to see her dance, but because the logistics were a little difficult. The recital was at Calvert High School, a 35-minute drive. And, there were dress rehearsals the 2-nights before the 2-night recital. There was one night for her ballet routine (Act II) and one night for her tap (Act IV). That made for a lot of driving across county lines. I sneaked in the first night of rehearsals and was dismayed that Anna didn't dance at all. Instead, she just stood there, checking out the scenery. In particular, she was fascinated by a giant mushroom (it was an Alice in Wonderland Theme). The second night, they enforced the "no parents allowed" rule, so I was not sure how tap went.
On Friday night, we decided to get there early to get a good seat. The 6 of us (Chaiya, our favorite babysitter came to support Anna) arrived at the theater around 5:30 (for a 6:00 start time) and the place was packed! At $15/ticket, this appeared to be a big money maker. Anna did fantastic! We were very proud of her--there was no stage fright. At one point, she did turn and pause for a minute to look at the backdrop, but then she got right back into it. It was fun to see all the dances. I was a little disheartened at the inappropriateness of many routines. If you have to bleep out lyrics, you probably shouldn't be playing it at a children's dance recital. At least in my (unsolicited) opinion.
We left after Anna's tap routine. It was already almost 9 and well past the kids' bedtime. Jack and Kara (and Thomas) held up surprisingly well, but we all had had enough by that point.
The next night, I was just going to take her. But, everyone seemed very disappointed with that, so we decided everyone would go. This was the important night--the professional videographer was there. We weren't allowed to take any pictures or video in the auditorium, so I was hopeful that Anna would repeat her stellar performance from the night before. We got there around 6, and the place was even more crowded than the night before. One benefit of that was we sat in the back row with a large open space behind us. The girls spent the night, at least when Anna wasn't on stage, dancing along. In fact, they have been dancing ever since the recital. They asked Thomas to set up the toy piano and they will turn on the music and just dance and dance. They are both excited to be taking a summer class together in July.
Back to the recital: when ballet came, they lined them up and Anna was directly behind a girl who is at least a foot taller than Anna. I know I am prone to exaggeration, but I am being literal here--Anna is a small 4-year old, she was behind an off-the-charts 5-year old (that is from her mom, she is off the growth charts). At one point, I went and stood behind cameraman to see what he was capturing and it was like she wasn't even there. You could not see her at all. I was mad! I consoled myself with the thought that at least in the tap routine, they stand in a single line. So, you can imagine my surprise (and irritation) when they came on stage in two rows. Oh, and guess who was in the second row? And, who do you think she was standing behind?? They lined the kids up as if they were doing the ballet routine and not tap. This time, it wasn't quite as bad, so I am hoping that we at least got some of this routine. However, after all that time and effort, I was still irritated that we weren't going to get a good video of Anna. But, she did well, and I tried to hide my disappointment. She could see I was upset and I told her it was because I couldn't see her very well. Her adorable response, "that's okay Mommy, I will do the dance for you tomorrow at home."
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