Dance Recital- A Night at the Movies

I always love going to Miss Lou's dance recitals. Several weeks before the recital she told me she didn't want to do dance next year. I was shocked and sad, but since I had already registered her, and paid the first month of fall tuition, I told her to wait until fall to decide. She doesn't think dance is one of her best talents, and maybe it's not, but I still love that it's something active to do during these long Idaho winters, and I hopefully it will teach her something and she'll be a better dancer than her uncoordinated mother.
I think one of the main reasons she wanted to quit was because she was feeling overwhelmed by the thought of the recital. During her Christmas recital she accidentally went to the wrong starting point and was thrown off for the first half of the song. I could see that she was upset and embarrassed but she held it together and kept smiling like I had instructed her. She was in tears before she made it back to her seat and I did my best to comfort her, but really, I can't blame her for feeling so humiliated. I was so heart broken for her because I knew she knew that dance and that one tiny mistake had messed up the entire dance for her. She left hurting, and of course when she's hurting, I'm hurting. But we've moved on and silently agreed to never speak of it again.
But there in the back of her mind while she preparing for her next recital I'm sure she was remembering what happened. And I could see that she didn't know her dances as well as she needed to to perform them confidently at the recital. So I took videos and made her practice. Every. Single. Day. for weeks. She was not pleased, but she practiced and worked so hard to memorize the dances. And let me tell you, by the end, she knew those dances, and she rocked that recital. She danced with confidence and remembered it all. Such a different experience it was for both us when we met up after the recital and she knew she had nailed it and that her hard work had paid off. For me, just as I had felt her sadness last time, this time I joined in feeling the joy of her success.
So she still may not be the best dancer. Hopefully she has learned that it doesn't matter. She doesn't need to compete and be the best, she needs to find joy in the expression of the music. Maybe she will still decide to quit, and that's okay if she does, but hopefully she wont let that stifle her, but will instead use her own creativity to express herself through dance.
Miss Naiya, know that I love you and am proud of you no matter what. And that you're amazing, just the way you are.

She did not want makeup on, but finally agreed to just a little bit.

Lyrical Costume, for "Go the Distance" from Disney's Hercules.

I suck at doing hair, this bun took me forever!

Jazz costume for "Magik 2.0" from Smurfs 2

Calin is not a big fan of dance recitals. He joined us for Trin's recital and sat there acting miserable the entire night, though I'm sure it wasn't as bad as he made it out to be.

At Trin's recital.

At Naiya's recital he noticed his gymnastics coach (whose daughters were performing), and several older gymnasts who were there to see their sisters. His attitude was  much different after seeing them, and he supported his sister without complaint.

After Naiya's recital.

We had a fun evening and afterward we headed to Kiwi Loco to celebrate.