All Aboard

Elsa had her end-of-year dance recital yesterday. This year she tap-danced to Good Ship Lollipop, and for the second time in three years, her class opened the show!

 

Elsa and next-door-neighbor Anna

And I have to say, she totally nailed this dance! Her whole class did. Her teacher told us a number of times that her entire class was very good, and after watching the recital, I see what the teacher meant. They were definitely the best of all the classes in her age group. And Elsa was right in there with them— I was so very proud of her! She missed one shuffle-ball-change and that was it.

Elsa and Eliana

Well .... until they got to the end, that is. At the end of the song, they were supposed to march to the side, stand close together, and all lift their right hands in a cute little formation. Except every one of them forgot to do it! They all did extremely well—and then they all forgot the exact same thing. LOL. (And wouldn't you know it, her teacher said they did it perfectly in the dress rehearsal.) So then all the girls were sort of standing around after the song ended, looking at each other and wondering what to do next. When Elsa realized what had happened, she yelled out, "Oh no!", and stamped her foot and looked very upset. Leave it to my perfectionist daughter to be the only one who reacted that way! I thought she might burst into tears right on stage. Then her friend Eliana put her arm around her and they filed off the stage. (Which I love, because Eliana was very upset during Picture Day, and Elsa was the one comforting her. They have such a sweet friendship!) By the time they sat down in the wings to watch the rest of the show, Elsa looked much better.

The whole thing was more amusing than anything else, although I'm sure the rest of the audience was wondering what Elsa was so upset about, since it wasn't obvious to anybody who didn't know their routine that they had missed that last part! In retrospect, I realize I should have talked to her about how to react if you screw up on stage (i.e., don't react at all, just smile and keep on going). Oh well, lesson learned!

Recital day was harder on Claire than anybody else, since she wanted so badly to be up there with the rest of the girls, wearing her own sparkly costume and dancing! My oft-repeated refrain of "Next year! Next year!" only went so far. But ... next year, Claire. : )