The dance recital rehearsal

The girls' dance recital was held last Sunday.  Yes, on Father's Day.  The rehearsal for the recital took place Saturday afternoon.  I've never done this before so I had no idea what to expect and because I don't bring the girls to dance class each week, I had to try to pass along my questions through Grammy.    The woman who runs this dance academy has been doing so for over 30 years so she has a system set in place.

The day back in May when I brought Em and Allie to class, there was an information sheet about the recital being distributed.  It specifically stated that photography and videography were not allowed during the recital because it would distract the kids.  She does have a professional videographer tape the recital, which is fine.  It actually takes the pressure off of us.  Photos and videos were more than welcome during rehearsal though.

Only parent/guardian per child is allowed to attend the rehearsal.  Of course, Rich and I ended up running a little bit later than I wanted to.  It took me almost 40 minutes to french braid the girls' hair.  They needed two braids each and their hair is baby fine.  I had to dampen their hair first and when I finished the braids, I took them outside, covered their faces with a towel and sprayed half a can of hairspray on their heads.

Anna is very picky when it comes to her hair and I was freaking out at the thought of her ripping her hair out before we even arrived at the school.  I told her that if she showed up to the rehearsal without french braids, Miss C would have another mom do them and that other mom might pull her hair really tight.  She left the braids alone.

We all sat in the auditorium during rehearsal and thank goodness Rich was there with me because changing three sets of tight tap shoes is not an easy task and there was a bit of a scramble to ready them for the first act.  While I was able to take photos, it wasn't the ideal situation as kids who were not on stage decided to stand in front of us parents taking pictures. In some cases, they were standing on chairs or sitting on tables.

I normally wouldn't post this many photos but I cut down as much as I could and with three kids, I want them all to be represented.  If you see them looking off to the side, they are trying to watch their dance instructor who was side-stage doing the dance routine at the same time.  After witnessing them watching her, I told them that they should just do the dance as they remember it to be and if they forget, then they should look over at Miss J.  Otherwise, I think they were getting too hung up on trying to follow along exactly.

First song: Friendship.  This was all the preschool, kindergarten and 1st grade classes.  (I think.)

Okay, so I lied about the photo overload because I can't finish this tonight.  I was hoping to fit all the photos into one post so this doesn't turn into Dance Recital Week here at The Great Umbrella Heist but I need my sleep.  To be continued....