Recital

End of year dance recital was rough this year. Another dance studio rented the auditorium when our dance studio normally had recital. Therefore, we had dress rehearsal on Saturday evening and recital on Sunday at 3. The other studio left something on the floor which made it difficult to do turns and such on it. Larissa had her own challenge as she has been struggling with in-grown toe nails. We just get it cleared up and then she would get them again. I checked her shoes and they all fit well. She just got new pointe shoes. Then she stubbed her toe and I realized that she does that often. Her brain has not caught up with her toes.

On dress rehearsal she was in obvious pain when doing pointe. I could see that she was crying and went up and told her dance teacher to not have her go on pointe for practice because of in-grown toe nails. I hadn't said anything because she gets very stressed at this time. Well, apparently she said something to Larissa before I said anything to her. Larissa came off stage in tears and ready to quit dance.

When we showed up on Sunday for the recital her teacher gave her some little cushioned disks to put on her toe. We had soaked them, froze them, put just about every concoction on the the night before. One toe got better but one toe did not. She said that peppermint would give some numbness to it so we brought it along to apply it between each dance (she had 5 dances). She was really worried about going up on pointe. She was told that she didn't have to if it hurt too much. She asked me about it. I told her that it was her choice but that I felt that she should. It was one dance and knowing her she would regret not going up. I also told her that if she did that she couldn't grimace like she does. She had to smile big for me and I would know that it was hurting. Well, she decided to go on pointe. She smiled big through most of it.

This isn't the most fantastic picture, her form may not be the greatest, but I know what it cost her to do it. It wasn't long ago that she would have made that decision. It shows me how much she has grown. I went back to check on her and she was beaming. She was so proud of herself. She also told me that her teacher was yelling at her from the side lines encouraging her and told her what a great job she did. Well, now we are back to many dance classes and she tried out for the competition team.

I didn't take very many pictures as the lighting makes it hard and I find that I don't get to enjoy the show as much. We purchase a video each year for the memories. Below is a picture of Emma. She has grown so much this year. Her teacher said that she is so different from when she did dance before. She listens and follows instruction and really tries to learn the routines. This year she took tap and jazz, next year she wants to do jazz, tap and ballet. Looks like we will let her sign up for three classes.