The Dance Recital

This year's recital was probably the only one that will ever feature all 4 of my precious girls. That's okay. I want them to be their own people and find what they love, but what a joy to get to see all of them on that special day!

It was insane. With Mackenzie in the company now, there's no more point to actually purchasing a seat for myself. Add on top of that 3 other kids to dress and change and I basically spent the entire time in the dressing room. But at least we get to run out to the auditorium to watch our kids dance!

Ashley and Reagan's first dance was ballet. They were fairies to a song from one of the Tinkerbell movies.

Their second dance was tap to Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins. They hated these big, poofy and itchy costumes. But when the whole class was all together in them they looked absolutely precious!

Here they are in a kick line! Go girls!

I talked Kaitlyn into trying jazz this year. She thought it was okay. What she liked most were some of the friends she made. The theme of the recital was Fairytales and Fantasies, so her dance was a jazzy version of Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty. She probably would have preferred for it to not be a princess song but it was still really cute. 

Then there's Mackenzie. She was in a total of 9 dances this year! The recital was definitely a fun end to all of her hard work all year.

First she was in the opening - a jazzy routine to Princesses Just Wanna Have Fun (like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun).

Her tap was great - to a song called Cool Cat. I was amazed at the technical level of the dance. It's exciting to really see her finally do some cool stuff. For so many years their moves were so simple so it's fun to see them really moving.

Mackenzie got to do a really fun duet with her friend Julia. They were the step-sisters from Cinderella. First there was a Cinderella solo with her in her rags. She stayed on stage when her solo was over and then Bad to the Bone came on and these two feisty girls came out and ran her off! It was pretty cute. Mackenzie and Julia were chosen for this dance because of their big personalities! 

My favorite was musical theater: You guessed it if you looked below at the picture - Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast! Mackenie was a fork! Here she is with a whole setting, including a napkin!

Seriously there was so much in this dance yet put together so nicely. It was definitely a crowd pleaser! Kudos to my friend Jennifer, who is one of her dance teachers for putting this together (plus to the moms who did a lot of the costume work).

My other favorite was her jazz dance. It was to Zero the Hero from Hercules. The music from Hercules all sounds like gospel music. It was so fast and so much fun! These girls were huffin' and puffin' every time they did it. I can't even find Mackenzie in this shot - I think she is behind Hercules who came out for the ending pose!

She did her robots competition routine, again. It was some techno song from around the mid-80s. Very fun to watch.

Lastly, Kaitlyn and Mackenzie both did the mother/daughter dance with me. It was a jazzy rendition of Cinderella's A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes. Too bad I couldn't do it with 4 kids - it was hard just doing it with two since there are moves where you have to partner up. 

And the stars of the show with their flowers!

It was most likely the only year I will have all 4 of them in the recital. I think next year just Mackenzie and Reagan are going to continue on. I hope each of them finds their "thing." In the meantime I hope they just have fun being active and having the opportunity to do lots of stuff!