Charlotte's Dance Recital

My beautiful little dancer (who LOVES to pose for the camera)

Charlotte LOVES to dance. She's always dancing. The house, the park, the car, the shops, anywhere she hears music, she starts to dance. 


We put Charlotte in dance for the first time when she was two. She had, in fact just turned two the month before so was one of the youngest in her class. I always said she was a interpretive dancer, dancing to her own beat so to speak. When it came time for the recital, all the Mommies were a little worried about their 2 year olds dancing on stage in front of the bright lights, having a very late night and having some sort of emotional meltdown. Well, the meltdown was left for this Mommy (I cried when the first little kiddies came on stage and Charlotte's class wasn't until much later). Charlotte did wonderfully. She watched her teachers as they did the steps too, and it was the cutest thing. I remember last year when I stood in line with all the other parents vying for tickets. One father said he paid hundreds of dollars to watch his child stand on stage and pick her nose. We all laughed (while inside hoping that wouldn't be our child) but you know what, even if it had been, it would have been worth it. The little ones dancing, so very cute.

Last Year's dance recital. Charlotte is 3rd from left.

Last night was Charlotte's second dance recital. I sent her to daycare for the morning (I needed a little birthday time to myself) and picked her up in the afternoon to take her home and get her ready. I gave myself lots of time to do her hair (I am not a hairdresser) and well, by the time 5pm came round, she was pretty much ready to go and we were all running around like crazy people. But, we were at the recital by 6pm and Charlotte was as excited as she could be. We kissed her, told her to break a leg and she was gone into the bowels of the arts and culture centre where the next time we'd see her would be on stage.


 It was the first time that Charlotte was on the stage sans teachers and she had a blast. Did she do all the steps? Nope. Did she do most of the steps? Not really. Did she do some of the steps? Absolutely. Did she enjoy it? You betcha. From the moment she came out on stage hand in hand with her partner Ava (aka her best dancing friend) she had a blast. She stood there, looked around, saw (and pointed to) the flowers motif behind her, twirled, clapped hands and danced with Ava when she was supposed to (or close to the right time) and had a ball doing it. All the kiddies did. They were just so darned cute.

Last night's recital - The Green Grass Grows. Charlotte is 4th from right.

The finale was another 3 hours later and yes, Charlotte stayed for that too. She wanted to see the balloons at the end and when all the dancers came on stage, her class was one of the last to come out and hand in hand they did. They were all still smiling after a very long day and still had a great time (although Charlotte found the music a tad too loud). After the recital I went down and got her. She looked so very tired but smiled when we handed her the flowers from us and Nana and Poppy. Although she wouldn't have her picture taken then, we did convince her to have more pictures taken when we got home. Then, once the excitement had subsided, we got her into bed and off she went to dreamland. 

Flowers from Mommy & Daddy

Flowers from Nana and Poppy

I'm already looking forward to next year. There are really only a couple of more years where the fun of being on stage outweighs the need to do the dance correctly and in time with everyone. While it'll still be lovely to see her dance and progress, there's nothing like seeing her on stage now, doing what she loves to do. DANCE.