Taylor's had an amazing year at dance! She's loved taking Tap & Ballet and always did wonderful in her class. She paid attention and knew the dance recital routine like a pro! Before I get into the drama of the dance recital, I wanted to show some of the "happy" pictures of the day in class when they dressed up for the recital and took pictures. These aren't the professional pictures but I'm hoping to get those soon.
On the day of the recital photos, the girls in class did NOT want to take any pictures and did not listen to the teacher when she asked them to cross their legs. Not Taylor though, she's the third from the left and is crossing those legs and smiling from ear to ear!!!
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| Group shot |
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| She also smiled so pretty for her solo picture! |
Well, now we get to the official Dance Recital day and the best way to sum it up would be to say the word "disaster"! The whole day was dramatic - from putting her hair up to getting her outfit on, there were tears non-stop. I'm not sure if we talked the whole recital thing up too much, but something was definitely "off!!" We even had several family members fly in for the recital - my mom, Rod, and Jason's mom. But unfortunately that did not help change Taylor's mind about hating anything to do with the dance recital.
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| One happy shot of Taylor putting on blush with Nanny |
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| Had to include this picture of Addie reading with Papa Kovar while we were all getting ready |
Once we got to the dress rehearsal, we went to the stage to practice and Taylor threw a fit and did not want to go on stage. To her defense, it was a huge performing arts stage, but she just sat in my lap up there and refused to perform.
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| The one happy shot of Taylor on the dance recital day |
The rest of the day is sort of a blur. The dress rehearsal was at 11am and she didn't perform until 1pm. We basically had to stay there those 2 hours and were trying to encourage Taylor to perform on stage. However, she was dead set against it!
Before her class went on stage, I took Taylor behind the stage to watch the other dancers perform close up. This helped to calm her down a bit and she told me that she would at least go stand on stage, but may not perform. But, when it was time to go out, she had a meltdown and we quickly went behind the curtain. Her routine was performed and Taylor stood behind the curtain performing the WHOLE ROUTINE!!! I asked her to at least wave to Daddy, so she pulled the curtain back and waved to the crowd twice. This was actually sort of a hit with the crowd and she got a lot of laughs.
Her teacher came to me afterwards and said that she was really sorry because "Taylor was always the happiest in class and knew the routine better than anyone!" I'm not sure if this made me feel better but it was nice of her to say.
The picture below really sums up the day - Taylor did NOT want any attention on her! She has always been like this, she does great until there is too much attention on her.
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| This picture sums up the day |
We'll definitely still do dance again next year but will have to pay closer attention to the dance recital. We don't want to put her through something like this again, but also want to encourage her to get over these fears! We'll see next year!!!
