Ballet recital stuff....

We made it through dress rehearsal in one piece, and will be headed back for the recital itself in an hour or so. We're relaxing at home until then. All in all, it went well. It was hectic and demanding, but good. The location of the dressing room for Erin's class was seriously up and down about 4 flights of stairs, which is really interesting at this point. My hip joints are killing me since I had to do that climb six times this morning, contracting like mad all the way, but we'll get through the main show tonight and then I'll fall over like I kind of want to at this point.

It's been difficult because we're the only first timers in our class. Erin's the youngest in her class (barely made the age cut-off for it by a week), and all the other girls have been with the studio for at least three years, so we definitely stood out as the rookies. We made it through, though, even if only by a hair at times. It'll go smoother tonight. It'll have to. Next year, it'll go even better.

Erin is so psyched for dance after getting to do this. She loved dancing on the big stage, and did so well. She loved watching the older girls do their dances, too, and knows that can be her someday if she continues to work hard. She wants to do all three classes this year, ballet, jazz, and tap. We'll support that. I think she deserves to. This year is the time to make decisions like that. We wait much longer, and she starts getting too old to take up new forms of dance. At this stage, she's still got a couple more years to be in the first level of classes and get her form right before moving up. We wait much longer, and it would do her a disservice. Seeing the other dancers today made it that much clearer to Erin that this is what she wants, so we're going to make it happen for her.

Anyhow, without further ado, pics and video:

Costume for Trolley Song (from the musical, "Meet Me In St. Louis"):


Costume for Colors of the Wind (from Pocahontas):


Between dances, in the auditorium, watching the older dancers:


Now videos (Click the links):

Trolley Song. Erin is to the back, and toward the right of the screen. She's the smallest and the only blonde, so pretty easy to pick out.

Colors of the Wind. In this video, you can't see her as well at the beginning. Thak got a really bad angle on it for a while. You can see her through most of it, though. Again, smallest dancer, only blonde.

She did AMAZING!! This was dress rehearsal. The main show is in a couple hours.