Post #40

My recital was last night!!!! lol. It was so much fun! My parents came to see me, of course, and also my friend and her family came because my friend's sister takes jazz. Well, I didn't tell about the dress rehearsal, so I'll start out with that.
Well, the dances went okay at the dress rehearsal. lol. My first dance was jazz, and it was the 11th dance in the first act. It turned out that I had to wait a loooong time though to go onstage, because when I arrived, they apparently were running behind and were still trying to finish up with the matinee show (we have three different performances- the preschool aged kids perform in the morning, the kids who are a little older perform at the matinee show, and then the older kids perform at the evening show). But luckily, I had a few people to talk to from my class while we were waiting. Finally we did get to go onstage, and I was really nervous. The jazz dance was definitely the most challenging dance I had this year. lol. But it went okay, even though I messed up a little on one part. Then I had to wait a long time again, because my tap dance wasn't until the second act. But that went well too. And then...the ballet. lol. Not that *I* thought we did that bad though. You see, I haven't told you about my ballet teacher in very much detail, but let's just say she is verrryyy strict and takes ballet a bit more seriously than she should. For example, she always makes us wear our hair in buns to class, even though the school policy says that as long as it is up and out of our face, it doesn't matter whether its a bun or ponytail. Also, if we were ever late to her class, even just a few minutes, she would make us stand in the center of the room and do our barre work there without a barre to hold on to. She didn't seem to understand that it was quite difficult for us to get to class, which started at 4:30, when most of us don't get home from school till 4:00. When we practiced our recital dance, it was almost as if the yelling of "Moooooove!" and "Goooooooo!" and "Keep your legs straight!" were incorporated into the music we were dancing to. She apparently has studied ballet in Russia, Paris, and London. No wonder she takes it so seriously. lol. I just wonder what brought her to our loosy-goosy dance school.  I will give it to her though, the dance was really pretty. But anyway, back to the dress rehearsal. We all got onstage, and as the music started, we could see our teacher standing at the side of the stage, watching our every move. Of course, we had to pass around that darned rose, so we had to concentrate on both that and the steps. It turned out that our teacher not only was standing at the side of the stage watching, but she also began yelling out all of those familiar commands that we had heard every week in class. Needless to say, everyone out in the audience looked a bit stunned. Of course, her yelling only distracted us more, so when we got in our line to do our turns, we got quite a bit out of line, and then at the end when we were supposed to run into a circle, we apparently were not in the center of the stage, for our teacher made that quite apparent. So it ended and we finally ran offstage, and we couldn't help but laugh at how insane our teacher was. We were all in the backstage hallway, going back to the dressing rooms, when our teacher came into the hall from the other stage door. Some people actually ran into the dressing rooms and hid from her! lol. Me and one other girl were still trying to get to the dressing room, and our teacher walked right past us! We both just looked at her nervously, but she didn't say anything, she just gave us an icy stare and walked off. So...yeah, that was dress rehearsal! lol.
Well, the next day was recital! I had to arrive 2 hours early, because we have this awards show before the performance for people who have been dancing for 5 or more years, and it is a DISASTER trying to get everyone lined up in the right order backstage. So, this year I got a trophy for 9 years.  Then, 30 minutes before the show, me and everyone else in my ballet class had to meet in a rehearsal room with our teacher because she made a mandatory warm-up for her class (that just figures. lol) She actually didn't say anything about the night before, so I guess she was over it. And then, the show finally started! I went onstage for my jazz dance, and it was awesome! I don't think I really messed up at all. And the same went for the tap dance. :) And then was the ballet dance. lol. Well, this time, our teacher had to control herself and stay backstage and not say a word, so needless to say, we did much better. Our lines were nice and straight and I think we pretty much found the center of the stage. :) Someone did apparently drop the rose once, but my parents and my friend all said afterwards that they hadn't noticed, so I guess it wasn't too noticeable. :) And we couldn't believe it- after we finished and went into the backstage hall, our teacher came out and told us that we were gorgeous!!! Everyone clapped since she finally gave us a compliment. lol. Then it was pretty emotional, because there are a lot of seniors in my ballet class and that was our last dance, so a lot of them were crying after we finished.
Well, after the show I saw my friend and she gave me a huge hug and told me that I did great about 10 times, so that made me feel pretty good- I guess I did really good! lol. Then my parents and I went and got ice cream on our way home. It was an awesome night! I'm sad now that the recital is all over, but at least I've got two more years to do them. :)
WHOOOOOO! This week is my last week of school! lol. Actually Thursday is my last day instead of Friday. And both Wednesday and Thursday are only half days. So I'm happy! Soon I'm going to be free!!!!!