Rainbow Connection

We had a VERY busy weekend. The biggest event? Nora’s first dance recital.

Last week was a week FULL of dance for Nora—with dance pictures, two extra rehearsals, and then, of course, the recital. It was busy and honestly a bit intense for a 3 year old (in my opinion, not Nora’s!) but the payoff was worth it.

On Monday, I tried my hand for the first time at being a dance mom. I had to get Nora all dolled up in the hair and (little bit of) makeup for her pictures. She was SO EXCITED about this process. After I finished her hair, she ran off saying, “I want to go look in the mirror.” I found her in front of the full-length mirror in our room, turned around, trying to get a glimpse of the bun at the back of her head. She was smiling from ear to ear, “Mommy, I getting older,” she told me. I pulled her back to do her makeup. Again, as soon as I was done, she ran to the mirror. “Mommy, I getting so old!” again. Not too fast, baby. Not too fast.

Before we left for the studio, I took a few of my own photos of her outside:

At the studio, she did great with her pictures. I peeked in on them when they were taking their class picture and OH MY GOSH. So much cute. Three year olds are adorable; I swear it is the best age!

A few days later, I had the official photo file emailed to me by the photographer:

Smile is a little fake, but it is still darling. Worth the whopping $22 they charged us for the digital download. (By the way—dance is expensive, yo. And I’m convinced they totally take advantage of parents’ emotions, because seriously. Who can resist?)

Recital day came on Saturday. I took Nora to a quick on-stage rehearsal (rehearsal #4 within the past week!) at the school. It was then that I got my first glimpse of their number. The teachers and the dancers had done a great job of keeping it all under wraps. They had encouraged the kids not to show their parents the dance so that they would be surprised on recital day. Sure enough, every time we asked Nora about it, she told us, “You have to wait. It’s a surprise!” The only thing we knew was that they were dancing to the song, “Rainbow Connection.”

At the rehearsal, the moms got to walk the girls to the stage and then we saw them go out as we stood in the wings. The music played and they performed and we all cried. WE WERE SUCH SAPS. Dance recitals make moms cry, apparently.

After they ran through it once, we went back home. We had a whopping 15 family members buy tickets to see Nora’s dancing debut. So before the show, we had everyone over to our house for a picnic. Soon, it was time to get Nora ready, so I took her upstairs and did the hair and makeup routine again. I did a better job the second time around (yay!), and then she was super excited to go downstairs and show everyone.

And then we were off to the show.

I took Nora backstage to meet up with her class. We took some photos and then as we stood waiting, we looked over and saw this:

The girls in her class were all embraced in a group hug. All by themselves. It was like a little pow-wow/pep rally before they hit the stage. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, UNIVERSE?! Crying again.

I scooted out of the room and into my seat in the auditorium. The show was “Dorothy’s Adventures in Oz” and our girls were rainbows. The lights were turned down, and then the curtain opened… and there stood my little girl. The stage lights came up, the music started, and the girls put on a show.

{If you can’t see the video above, click here. Nora is third from the right, by the way.}

Of course, I cried again. And then my heart burst because I was just SO PROUD OF HER. Nora is naturally shy, and always has been. There was always part of me that wondered if she would 1) refuse to go out on stage, 2) have an emotional breakdown, or 3) get out there and freeze. She did none of those things. She rose to the occasion and danced—with gusto! It seems perhaps we really have done a good thing by getting Nora into dance classes. She loves it (most of the time), and I think it has been great for helping her overcome some of that shyness. I mean, hell, getting up on stage like that makes MY stomach churn, so for her to do it? At three years old?? Again, just so, so proud.

The only negative about the recital was that they were first—then we had to sit through everyone else’s numbers. :) The littles did come back again for the finale/curtain call, during which Nora got visibly terrified by the older girl playing the Wicked Witch. As soon as she came out and the voice over the music cackled and said “I’ll get you my pretty,” Nora jumped out of her skin and scurried back to take cover in the arms of her teachers. Poor kid.

After the show, we took some family pics outside with our little ballerina.

She was very excited about the long-stemmed rose that her grandma brought for her.

As I was tucking her in that night, I asked her if she wanted to dance again in the fall.

“You’ll learn a new song and new dance, and then eventually have another recital with a NEW costume,” I told her. “Do you want to do that?”

“YES,” she answered. “But only the recital.”

Sweet, funny girl. I guess the recital part was more fun than all of the Saturday classes to get to that point. And apparently she really DID love being up on that stage!

My tiny dancer is getting so big.