Lily's Dance Recital

Lily has had so much fun taking her tap and ballet class at The Little Gym this Fall. It is an hour long class; the first 30 minute is spent on dance and the remaining 30 minutes is for gymnastics. She loves showing off the new skills she has learned. There were only 3 kids in her class this time, so she received lots of attention from Miss Maria (dance teacher) and Miss Jane (gymnastics teacher). I think this has really improved her coordination and confidence levels.

Last Thursday was the last day of class, and parents were invited in to see the gymnastics finale. Lily did a small "floor routine" which consisted of a forward roll, monkey swing (which is like a small cartwheel), a donkey kick (the beginning stages of a handstand), jumps and twists. Lily loved it. The teachers are always so kind to let Mia play along too since there are so few kids there, so she joined in as best she could too. Here are a few of the pictures from Thursday.

Marching and clapping along to the music.

"Funny train" with Miss Jane.
Lily has really improved on the beam. She can turn in circles, bend down and walk her arms out in front of her, walk backwards and balance on one leg. She likes the beam a lot.
Mia trying an arabesque too.

Trying out the rings.

Ta da! Lily showing off her medal.After the gymnastics portion of the day, we watched the girls dance for a few minutes, and then the teacher asked us to leave so the girls could practice their routines for their recital which was Friday night. They wanted it to be a surprise.

So, this past Friday, December 17, was Lily's dance recital. She was so excited about her performance! To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. Part of me thought she would get on stage and just stand there with stage fright. Boy was I wrong! She did great! Check out these pictures...

So excited!

Showing off her costume. Really, have you ever seen anything so cute?

Here is Lily and her class performing their tap routine. The video is about 2.5 minutes long if you would like to watch it. Lily concentrates on watching her teacher, Miss Maria, who is standing off to the side showing them what to do. She later told me her favorite move that she learned during her entire class is the classic move "heel, toe, heel, toe." You can see her perform that move during this routine. She is second from the right. You'll notice a little box in the bottom right corner of this screen. If you click it, it will enlarge the video to fill your monitor; when the video is over press the ESC button on your keyboard to return to normal size.

After the tap routine, Lily came down with a huge smile on her face. She was so proud of herself! We changed into her ballet slippers, and then waited for her class to get called back up to perform their ballet routine. While we waited, Lily told me "Mommy, I am going to do my ballet perfect!" I said "That's great, but I want you to do your best." She replied "But Mommy, I have been practicing, and I can do it perfect." That's my girl. She did a great job here too. I was so amazed at her concentration especially as the other little girls ran around and didn't seem to care about following a routine. Again, the video is about 2 minutes if you want to watch. You'll notice she is again concentrating on watching Miss Maria until about halfway through you hear a voice from the side yell "LILY! LIII-LY!" so Lily turns, finds Mia, smiles, waves and then returns to her routine.

Were those adorable or what? In case you weren't able to see the picture, or if like me, you just can't get enough of these cuties, here are some pictures Ryan took while I shot the video.

Coming out to tap.

Marching and tapping.
Paying careful attention to Miss Maria and imitating all of her moves.

End of the tap routine; so sweet!

Next up: the ballet routine. First, a little plie.

I know very little about dance, but doesn't this look like a great pose?

I think there is a technical name for this move, but they jumped up and down a lot at this point.

Pointing her toes.

After all six classes had performed both of their routines (each classes' routine was a little different), they called all the kids back up on stage for a free-style dance. Lily smile and tapped her heels on alternating feet the whole time. I think having everyone up there at once with little structure was a little overwhelming.

After the free style dance, Lily came back down to us where Ryan gave her three beautiful red roses which she loved. Here she is giving Daddy a big hug to say thank you.

I love this sweet picture.

Lily did a great job with both of her routines, and she had tons of fun. I have loved watching her become more confident as she takes these different classes at Little Gym. We are so proud of our sweet Lily!