2009 Dance Production

We spent most of last week working on the final days of Sydney's dance production. This years show was "New York, New York". Sydney participated in two shows this year, one on Friday night and another on Saturday afternoon. She also had dress rehearsals all day on Thursday. We are so proud of her accomplishments and hard work this year. She has practiced so hard for both her dance and acro parts of the production. I took all of the pictures on dress rehearsal day because the show days were so CRAZY. We had very strict time schedules we had to adhere to on those days plus we were not allowed to take any pictures during actual shows. I got out my old hot rollers (from high-school) to do Sydney's hair. She was so good...she had to have her hair done for three days in a row! I told her it is hard work to be a princess :)

Pretty hair...half up, half down.
She also had to wear make-up for three days in a row. I think I deserve an award just for putting eye-liner on a 6 year old. She didn't love that part so much. But she had fun getting ready for the rest of it.

Her first dance in the first show was "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend". This was her tap number and it was super cute. I took pictures during dress rehearsals but I wasn't close enough to the stage so they didn't turn out. For the night of the show...I took my turn being a "room mom"...which consisted of watching 10 six year-olds in the dressing rooms and backstage. The show was 2 1/2 hours long and the girls were checked in an hour before the performance so I was very tired by the end of the night. However, it was so fun to be in the wings on stage (behind one of the curtains) and watch Sydney dance up close.

Her next performance was "The Boy from New York City". This was her acro dance. I am amazed at how much she has progressed this year in acro. She is very close to doing full splits (both ways) and can do all sorts of other flexible things. Here's a picture of her warming up with a "sugar bowl". She can touch all the way to her eye-brow now but I didn't want her to ruin her hair for the pictures.

There are only a few girls that can do headstands unassisted at this point and hold them for at least a minute. Sydney has worked so hard on these and she was front and center during part of her acro performance.

Here she is doing another part...the "sugar bowls".

After her Saturday performance, we brought her roses and took her for a milkshake at JITB! We are so proud of her hard work. She didn't even get nervous performing for all those people and being up on stage under the bright lights.

I couldn't end this without a big thank you to her wonderful dance school...Take Five Dance...and her amazing teacher Ms. Pam and Courtney (she helps out with some of the classes). Sydney has been at Take Five since she was three (although we took one year off when Sophie was born). This year, she did dance and acro for two hours every Monday night so we have spent lots of time at Take Five. We will miss this wonderful school and all the staff and all our dance friends. I am already worrying about finding another school and teachers as great as this school.