My Tiny Dancer

Emma Kate is in the middle of her 2nd year of dance and gymnastics. Last year she took dance across the street from our church. She enjoyed it a lot and loved her teacher, but we decided to move her to a different studio closer to her school and our work this year. She really loves it and there are a couple of girls in her kindergarden class as well as a good friend from daycare.

Here are some pictures of her performances. Enjoy!

This was her very first recital in December of 2007. The theme was Disney Princesses. Each class of little girls had an older girl dressed as a princess to help guide them through the steps. Yes, Emma Kate is the little girl right next to Sleeping Beauty! Notice the PERFECT form.

This picture is from the Spring 2008 recital. Emma was in 2 performances - one for gymnastics and one for ballet. This was her gymnastics costume. Isn't she beautiful??? The entire dance studio performs in this show and it lasted more than 3 hours!!! Emma Kate's performances were scheduled at the beginning of Act I and the end of Act II. Bad planning, I thought. I enjoyed watching all the dancers, but 3 hours is WAAAAY too long between performances for a 4 year old.

After her gymnastics routine, Emma Kate ran up to me and said, "Oh, Mommy, I love being on stage!!"

Here we are at the end of the 3 hour show. These poor girls were so tired they could barely raise their arms.

Notice the sleepy eyes.

Last summer Emma Kate participated in a dance/gym camp session. Each morning for one week my friend, Jessica, who is a teacher and doesn't work in the summer picked up Emma Kate from daycare and took her and her daughter, Victoria, to class. We wanted to test out this new studio before we enrolled her full time for fall classes. She has such a good time and I was so impressed with the organization.

This picture was taken backstage at the 2008 Nutcracker performance. These two pretty girls are also in Emma Kate's kindergarden class at school

Emma Kate was a little angel in the Nutcracker. Each little angel is assigned a big angel to stand next to during their scene. She was onstage for only about 5 minutes, but I absolutely bawled my eyes out!!!! I was so proud of her.

We have purchased the costumes for the spring recital and she practices weekly. Stay tuned for future pictures of our tiny dancer!!!