After the Hop

Here are a few pics of Eliza Grace before, during and after her recital.

Waiting to begin the "Kiss the Girl" production number.

Oh, my, those beautiful blue eyes!

After nearly 3 hours of recital performances, Scott, Grandmommy & I were all ready to go home. Eliza Grace, however, was still revved up and apparently channeling her inner "Karate Kid," a movie I know she has never even seen!

Let's Go To The Hop!

Well, another year of tap dancing has come to a close. As usual, around March, Eliza Grace (and I!) became fairly tired of the weekly classes and she was fine not doing dance next year. We had pretty much decided that she would do a year-round swim/stroke school on a weekly basis instead.

But oh, the lure of those dang costumes! Once she tried on her costume, the visions of being on the stage, under the lights, with a full house applauding her - well, she was a goner. I am currently looking up the schedule for next year's classes.

Her tap class this year only had six girls so they had a lot more one on one attention than they normally would. Good thing for Eliza Grace :)

Their routine was adorable. The show theme was the Little Mermaid. They were "frogs" and did their dance to the song "Let's Go To The Hop."

Below are two little video snippets. The whole thing would take way too long to upload so I broke it out into my two most favorite parts. I wish I had been dead center of the stage because her finishing pose and smile is just so incredibly adorable!!

In case you cannot tell, Eliza Grace is the second from the left. I recorded this during the dress rehearsal because video recordings are "strictly forbidden" during the live performance (which means you are forced to purchase the DVD they record for a mere $40 a pop!)

So here she is, my little frog, tapping her way to the hop!

A Star Is Born...

Well, of course, Eliza Grace's ability to capture an audience has been known by family and close friends for quite some time (remember Christmas at our house when she was two? I finally had to cut her off after the 3rd song....and she still continued to bow for her applause!)

Last Friday night she performed in the Cary Ballet Conservatory's yearly recital. Given them name of the dance school, one would expect quite a production and we were not disappointed. It was looooooooooong! Over 2 and a half hours, with a 15 minute intermission.

Amazingly, Will sat on my lap for over an hour waiting to see his sissy perform - and it only took all 5 of the Dum-Dum lollipops that I had in my backpack! When she appeared on stage, you can hear him shout (in the video) "go sissy go, go sissy go!" He is such a good little brother!

Eliza Grace and the rest of the "camels" in her Broadway Kids tap/jazz class did an exceptional job. The 5 & 6 year olds were the youngest to perform in the big production and it was a lot of fun but stressful for them.

I was a little concerned at the dress rehearsal, 5 days prior, because all the little girls looked fairly shell-shocked up there on the big stage with all the lights and the people and the set and the noise. Eliza Grace told me afterward that she was not nervous but, "mommy, I forgot all the steps I was supposed to do." But, as I well know, a bad dress rehearsal is supposed to mean a great opening night, and it was !

Here are a few more pictures of before and after the performance. I hope to be able to post a snippet of video once I figure out how to use the video capture software.

Riding in the car on the way to the recital

Waiting her turn to go back stage. Some days she seems so big but pictures like this remind me that she is still such a little girl!

After the performance, with her flowers and new silver charm (on her wrist) to commemorate the "Treasures of the Pyramid"