Stella's first day of dance class at Becky Jones School of Dance was on Tuesday, September 6th. She'd been telling me for a while she wanted to do ballet and tap so I told her after we returned from the beach for the Summer and she started school, that she could do dance. She started a month late into the program, but that had no effect on her.
How happy does she look here?! Ugh, melts my heart.
Miss Allison is helping her with her ballet shoes.
Sadly, this happened directly after tap class the same day as the above picture was taken.
Normally after tap, I'd grab her, sit her down and put her back in her pink ballet slippers. But this day I didn't. I actually said to her that we should swap, but Stella said, "We're just going straight home" so I thought it would be ok to leave her in the tap shoes because she was right.
Stella wanted to hold the door for me, so I let her. I walked out, then I walked a few a few more feet to the curb and I turned to her to grab her hand. She was in the process of falling. The slick bottomed tap shoes were an awful mix with the sidewalk. She smacked the sidewalk with her forehead and it bounced back up to reveal an immediate goose egg. This happened almost directly in front of her dance school and the UPS store. Poor thing just screamed and cried and I felt so bad for her.
We iced and applied some arnica gel to it several times and it healed up nicely. But from there on out, each Tuesday after tap, she would immediately change back into her ballerina slippers before we walked outside. Lesson learned.
For Stella's age group they'd start in ballet, do about 25 minutes of ballet, then they would grab their bags, take a sip of water and swap from ballet shoes to tap shoes. When they were all done, they'd get a sticker or a stamp on a note card with their name on it. Then the girls would grab their bags and line up behind the line leader and wait for Miss Allison to open the door. Usually Miss Kayla's door would open first. The younger class, Stella's class, would all march out and in to tap, while the older girls waited patiently for their turn to change classes.
Miss Kayla is taking attendance at the beginning of tap class.
Every Tuesday I would sit in the skinny, dimly-lit hallway and do a variety of things during Stella's hour long class. Sometimes I'd read, talk with other moms, return phone calls, finish up a small project, make/cross things off a to-do list, but my favorite thing of course was to watch Stella learn to dance. The first few weeks I was standing watching her through the one-way glass more than I was sitting.
I was a bit nervous signing her up at Becky Jones versus the Smyrna Community Center because at BJD, they do a school year commitment plus a recital at the end of the year. I wasn't sure how Stella was even going to do for one class, much less a nine month course of dance. Really, I wasn't committed until October. That was when the first payment installment was due on for her recital costume. Turns out she loved it so, so much and I think me being out of the picture helped a lot.
A Sunday in March they had picture day with their dance recital costumes.
While waiting for her class' turn, I snuck her down the sidewalk in front of the florist for a cute Springtime photo shoot.
Striking a pose!
On March 28th, Stella wanted a remake of her first day of dance pictures with Ballerina Bunny.
The professional shot with a fake smile.
Stella never once complained about going to dance. She loved it. And for a while her favorite part was tap. Then it was ballet, briefly. But then she decided she liked them equally. We only missed two classes the entire season. Once, in December while at Disney, then at the beginning of May, I believe because she had a really bad cough. She was afraid she'd cough all over her friends and I was afraid I'd have to administer her inhaler 45 times otherwise she may cough up a lung. So we stayed put at home.
To say "Thank you" I got gift cards to Chick Fil-A for Miss Allison and Miss Kayla.
And then came time for the dance recital.
Her costume. So adorable, right?!
The day before, at her rehearsal, Stella was on the left side of the stage. So when we arrived Sunday for the recital, I said, "We'll sit to the left since that's where she was yesterday." Well, guess what? She was on the right side of the stage for both of her dances. Saturday, two girls were missing during rehearsal and they are taller, so I'm guessing when the time came to line them up they had to do some adjustments to make them look right.
Either way, I'm just glad I brought my real camera so I could zoom in and get some shots. Problem was, I had to turn the flash off so I couldn't set it on the action setting so a good bit came out blurry. The lighting turned out much better for the finale photos.
Striking a pose
L to R: Addy, Hattie, Jola, Meredith, Brigette, Wylie, Stella, Maddy
Here she is watching Bridgette do "shuffle step" instead of actually doing it.
Her favorite part: "Look out boys...."
"....I'm coming through!"
"Boogie woogie hands and knees (ooor not so much with the knees)
"Alligator arms"
Not entirely sure what's going on here with her cheeks?
Soooo I got pretty emotional watching the other/older girls on stage. But I didn't actually get that way when Stella got on stage. (I'm always a pre-crier!!) The thing was, this was a two hour production. Stella's first dance wasn't until about 50 minutes in to the recital. And her last song was maybe 15 minutes before the end of the show. So by the time she got on stage, I had suppressed the tears mostly. But at the end, it did get to me and things got a little misty. It was amazing to see how far she had come from her first class in September to here in June. To see each singular step and move put to words and song and transformed into this adorable accomplishment.
I started thinking later on, I got all emotional over eight months of hard work on her part. I got to watch her an hour each week learn something new or perfect a move and see it become something bigger at the end of those eight months. I canNOT even imagine how I will feel when she graduates from kindergarten or highschool or....college. Ugh! So many thoughts, emotions, feels. And most will say, "Too soon!" But really, it will be here before we know it.
Daddy's girl
This one is a favorite! I got her the pink Gerbera Daisy and Uncle Mikey and Aunt Jessica got her the white bouquet.
Afterwards, we all celebrated her accomplishment at The Marietta Diner. Several other families were there too.
She ended up getting eggs and fries (why not?) for supper and the most chocolate-y chocolate cake there ever was instead of the sprinkle covered one she's pointing to here.
Our star definitely was a super star!!
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