Ballet Recital

Norah started taking ballet at the community center across the street from our house in California.  It was a super simple program and we walked her over to it every Saturday morning. No muss, no fuss.  We have not been able to find a similarly organized program here.  Every dance class within reasonable proximity to us is through a studio.  I have nothing against studios, but in my (albeit very limited) experience, you are nickeled and dimed for every little thing.  Monthly tuition, registration fee, costume fee, recital fee, costume photograph...the list goes on and on.  I do it because she really likes it, but I just don't think any four year old needs a $70 recital costume.

Yesterday was her recital at a theater downtown (actually, it was literally across the street from my office).  That was fine, but in order to participate in the recital she had to attend the dress rehearsal, also at the theater downtown, on Thursday.  At 4:00 pm.  Oh and did I mention BVZ was out of town all week?  Thankfully I have a flexible work schedule and a Bubby who watched Lou, but what if I didn't have either or both of those things? Don't get me wrong, Texas is really growing on me, but there are a lot of kid-centric activities that are very unfriendly to two-parent working families.  

Anyway, enough griping.  On with the show.  The theme was music from movies and Norah's class did a dance to the song from Rapunzel ("I can see the light.")  At the dress rehearsal we discovered that underpants + tights + her costume gave her "an atomic wedgie."  

 For the real deal I let her wear a little makeup.

Before the show started we could take photos of the dancers up on the stage.

Norah has a sweet friend named Isabella.

I was a little worried about Lou, given the fact that he does not like to sit in the audience, he wants to be a part of the show.  I loaded him up with snacks and he did okay.  The first act was a group of older girls from the studio that did a performance of Peter Pan in seven acts.  It was about a half hour. I thought for sure Lou would lose his mind but he was totally into it.  I think because there was a Captain Hook.  He was so into it that for the rest of the recital he would randomly yell out, "where Captain Hook go?"

BVZ was out of town all week and walked in the door approximately three minutes before we had to leave for the theater.  I told him he would score big points by getting Norah some flowers.  She was beside herself.  I get none of the glory.

That's okay, I can live with it.

 I have appreciated what ballet has done for her.  She is getting more comfortable around a crowd, is willing to try new things, and is staying active. We'll let her do it for as long as she wants to.  I just hope there's some kind of resale market for these costumes.