Team Showcase

The annual kickoff to our dance season occurred this past weekend. It is called the team showcase and each of the competition routines from our studio preform that day. The studio owner hires professional dancers to come in and judge/critic the routines and then we will spend the next few weeks fine tuning them before we have our first official competition.

Emily has 3 routines this year, an acro/dance number, a ballet number and a jazz number. Because of our typically hectic schedule I hadn't really seen any of her rountines in their totality. When I saw my daughter on stage, I almost burst with pride! She has this new air about her, this confidence, there is really no way to explain it. She has finally come out of her shell! I don't know if it was her experience with the Nutcracker, the wonderful new ballet teacher or the new acro team she joined, but the child was just beaming. She danced beautifully and looked so much like she "belonged" in the spotlight! I think Hannah was as proud of her as I was, she kept seeing "did you see her? did you see her?". Even though I think her jazz routine is far too easy for her skill level, it is nice that she is center stage almost the entire time! Guess her instructor thinks she is worthy of the position!

Hannah is doing a hiphop and a tap routine this year. Hannah always has fun on stage and looks like she enjoys herself. I really like her tap routine, haven't made a decision about her hiphop routine, there are a couple girls on the team that are new to competitive dance and it shows, but I do think that it is something that will get better with time!

The only bad thing was that I had brought Sophie up to watch the girls and right before Hannah came on stage for the first time (our second routine of the day) she covers her mouth and screams "I'm gotta PUKE!"....I grabbed her and ran her outside just in time for her to puke in the grass! Jay ended up taking her home along with the boys, so he only got to see 3 of the girls routines (OK bad mom here, we watched Hannah's routine and the next one of Em's ...only 10 minutes later...before Jay left!).

Next Monday, Jacqui Haas is coming from the Cincinnati Ballet to evaluate the girls on the ballet team to see if they are ready to begin pointe. This is a HUGE deal, met with great apprehension by Emily! She REALLY wants to start pointe and has been working hard on her turnout, but she also knows that most girls are ready for pointe until at least 12 or 13. I will be interested to hear if Jacqui thinks she is anywhere close to being ready! It will be so hard for her if the other girls in her pre-pointe class get approved to move to pointe and she doesn't! I know that Jacqui knows best, guess we just have to wait and see! I just wish the instructor (Miss Viki) would give us an idea if she thinks she is ready or not, but she is keeping very closed lipped about it all (I don't think she wants to get the girls hopes up!).