tiny dancers

Annabelle's dance studio had a little tiny recital last week. Only eight girls from the original class signed up and one had to drop out on the day of the performance so it was a small group.  I offered to take the spot of the missing girl but I was turned down. Each dancer's family was given two seats in the audience so it was only parents and a couple of siblings.  

She had two practices before the show and after I picked her up from the first one, she said her dance shoes didn't fit anymore. We never wore shoes when we practiced at home so I didn't know she outgrew them during the quarantine break. I had to track down shoes from a friend whose daughter is in another class. We did try the costume ahead of time but we couldn't get the skirt to line up evenly. It always looks like a shirt badly tucked into pants. That's because it was an asymmetrical skirt so it wasn't supposed to be even. I believe the words you're looking for are, "what a great dance mom you are." 

I love watching little dancers. They're so precious in their tutus and very little idea of what to do.

The tap song was "Animal Crackers In My Soup" and the ballet song was a version of "Baby, Take a Bow." At two points in the tap song she was supposed to do a wiggle with one hand on her hip and the other in the air. AB was SO embarrassed anytime she did it. I honestly didn't know if she'd do it in the recital or not. The lyrics at those points were "who's that bunch of personality?" and "here's the future Miss America." I showed her several times how to do a convincing Miss America move but she was never impressed. When she did it at the recital, she shrugged and stuck one arm up. It was the most minimal effort she could have put forth while still doing it. 

If only she had looked to her mother for guidance. I'm very experienced with the hands-on-the-hip move.