Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Berkeley's 1st Dance Recital



Lyla, Berkeley & Isabelle


This cracks me up...the power of the iPad!!!
Berkeley & Miss Ella







On Friday, June 29, Berkeley performed in her first ballet recital.  She did a fantastic job and I was so proud.  Before she signed up for ballet, I took her to an observation class so she could see what the class was like and if she really wanted to do it.  Before the class was over she was asking if she could go out and dance so it really seemed like she wanted to do it and would have a great time.  After we observed and went home, I asked her if she really wanted to do it and she said yes.  So, I signed her up.  The class runs like a school year, from September through June so it was a big commitment and I wanted to make sure she really wanted it.  The first class she was very shy, which is normal for Berkeley and wouldn't go out on the floor without me.  She wouldn't talk to the teacher and clung to me the whole time (all very normal for her).  Her teacher's name was Miss Ella and after class was over I asked her if her mom's name was Golden.  She said yes.  I couldn't believe it.  We all used to go to the same church years ago and I remember when Miss Ella was born.  Made me feel pretty old!  So, Ella was very sweet, gentle and patient and we made it through the first week.  Anyway, I ended up dancing with Berk the whole year.  All the other mom's would either leave and run errands and then pick their daughter up after class or they would sit on the bench and watch.  I was the only mom out there dancing, week after week with a bunch of 4, 5 and 6 yr olds!  Towards the middle to the end of the year I would just do about 5 minutes of the warm up and then I'd go sit on  the bench and Berkeley was fine with it so we did make some progress. 

Initially I didn't sign her up to be in the recital because the costumes were outrageously expensive and I just knew Berkeley wouldn't go out on a huge high school stage and perform in front of a large group of people.  So about a month after they started learning the routine, Berkeley seemed really into and and seemed to be having a lot of fun.  Miss Ella asked if I was sure I wasn't going to sign her up.  I talked to Berkeley and asked her if she really, truly wanted to do it and she said yes.  The other moms talked me into it so I paid the money and prayed that she'd actually do it.

We had a couple of 3 hour dress rehearsal before the show and Berkeley and her little class did awesome.  They didn't mind the bright lights and didn't seem intimidated with the huge stage.  They had high school aged ballerinas that they danced with (and all the little girls looked up in awe at them).  The girls were super good with  them and made them feel comfortable up there.  On the night of the show, Tom was in the audience (I was backstage) and he didn't even recognize Berkeley.  Partly because she had to wear make up so she didn't look quite like herself, but also because she was the first one to run out on the stage and led each of the little girls in her class through the routine.  She smiled like she was having the time of her life and had it memorized perfectly.  We all had to pick our jaws up off the floor after watching Berkeley.  We all held our breath and prayed she'd actually do it.  Lord knows, I wasn't going out there to do the routine with her in front of all those people :)  I had to draw the line somewhere :)

After she finished and came back stage she had the biggest smile I have ever seen.  She was so proud of herself and so was I.  It was a huge deal for her and I still kind of can't believe she actually did it.  What a milestone.  I'm glad I didn't let her quit.  She wanted to, many times, but I told her since she wanted so badly to sign up and made the commitment, then we needed to finish it out.  I wanted to quit many times too...especially since I did not sign up for it, but I kind of enjoyed dancing with the 5 yr olds!  They actually made me look kind of graceful - a first for me!!!

1 Comments:

Blogger Chris and Laura said...

You are beautiful Berkeley! I'm so proud of you and hope you keep dancing! Pretty sure you got those dancing genes from your dad!!!!!

2:10 PM  

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