Dance week is one of the busiest weeks of our year. For some reason it always falls the week of VBS so Derek & the kids are busy every morning. Then Kaylee & I are busy every evening. But its also a fun week, I really enjoy the extra one on one time with Kaylee. This year especially, I notice how much she's grown and I realize that my time with her is limited.
This year Kaylee performed in seven numbers in her recital compared to last year's three. She has really stepped up as a dancer this year. She's worked very hard and it has really paid off.
We used to wonder about the kids that were in so many dances each year. Why did their parents let them do all of it? How did they afford it? Now we know, that when your child truly loves something you want them to have every opportunity to excel. Plus recital is a lot more interesting when your child is in a lot of numbers!
Here's Kaylee's rack of costumes. She had to make 8 costume changes before the end of the show because they take their final bows in their solo costumes.
This was Kaylee's first year in The Danceline opening production number. She really enjoyed being a part of this large group. It required Saturday practices, which were a sacrifice for the whole family, but Kaylee really liked the dance. It was a compliation of songs from recitals over the years and it was really a lot of fun.
This was also Kaylee's first year with a solo. She danced as the Cheshire Cat during the Alice in Wonderland production.
Kaylee also became a classroom assistant this year and helped with preschool classes on Monday. Kaylee enjoyed working with the little kids and we enjoyed the fact that she earned some credits toward her tutition. Working with the little ones has made Kaylee think that maybe she would like to be a teacher someday.
The Lyrical number was a multi-class number. The littlest girls wore pink, the younger intermediate group wore purple and the older intermediate group wore blue. The song was "Heal the World." It was a pretty dance.
Kaylee really enjoys her Acrobat class. This year she did a round-off, backhand spring in the recital. She didn't really like this costume though.
This is her jazz group. Most of these girls shared a dressing room. They just had so much fun together. This was Kaylee's first year in jazz. I really liked the number- you could tell the girls really enjoyed the performance.
A bunch of Kaylee's friends from youth group came to the show on Wednesday. Kaylee was so excited to have them all cheering her on. We are so thankful that God has blessed us and Kaylee with a loving church home.
I didn't end up with pictures of the Pointe & Ballet costumes because the costumes changes were too quick. In fact, we had to change from the point tutu to the ballet skirt side stage. I have professional pictures of those though.
It was a great year. Kaylee has made new friends and has learned a lot. I'm sure next year will be just as exciting. She has 2 weeks off then she has a summer intensive dance camp the week before summer classes start. It's fun to see how committed she is to doing her best at this. And this is good practice, we remind her that God calls us to do our best at whatever we are doing. He has big plans for her, his plans might not involve dance but at least she'll know what its like to put maximum effort into doing something and doing it well.
