Chloe's Dance "Recital"

Chloe just finished a dance class with the city here. I thought it was a lot of work for me and the kids to make it happen considering it was on the other side of town and I had to have her get out of school 10 min. early so we could get there on time and then her class was an hour and 15 min. long which is quite a while to entertain the other kids and then it was pretty much dinner time when we were done, but after watching her in the class, I have determined that I was surprisingly impressed at what she was able to get out of it and we would probably do it again. (Eek, did I just say that?)

There was some rule about not being allowed to do video so I just had to go crazy with taking pictures. Unfortunately, I had the camera on some random settings I was playing with in my photography class so I didn't realize it until too late so most of my shots are blurry and horrible lighting but that is life and I still found some that I really like like this (she looks so grown up and pretty):

and these:

She forgot her shoes so we started definitely with some trials but by the time her teacher reassured her that it was ok to dance in her tights, she was able to relax and enjoy herself. I was surprised and impressed that she had the entire routine memorized and she knew the names of all the dance positions and moves. I could tell that she gained a lot of confidence in her body and I already noticed that her control of her body improved quite a bit. It was really fun to watch. There was an unexpected portion when they did this like "interpretive" dance and she was just supposed to move however the music made her feel and she was just so into it and smiling and it made me smile too. She wasn't embarrassed at all and just let it all go. That's how she is at home, but it was nice to see her be able to be that way in public too because sometimes she can be quite shy. It made me so happy that she was just so confident and having fun. She still is awkward and her feet are so big for her right now but going into this experience, that was all I wanted: confidence and improved control. So now that means, heaven help us on Wednesdays. I'll just have to re-read this post to remember all the good that came from it.