Grace's Dance Debut

This past Saturday, Grace had her first dancing performance! The big recital is in May, but this one was part of George Bush Library's Christmas celebrations. Two of the dance studios in town have groups dance. I was really nervous about this because as much as Grace LOVES to go to dance, she is happy in her comfort zone. Her comfort zone is right in the dance classroom with her teachers and other dancers. She has not loved being in the spotlight much yet. She has only recently gone to the front of the church for Children's Sermon and is now comfortable in preschool and dance class, but she likes the routine of it all. But, everyone told me that going to this performance was wild! You have to go through security and there's tons of people and music and dancing and it is crazy. So, we were prepared and got there early. I took her back to the back room with tons of other dancers and teachers and it was a madhouse. She told me she did not want to wear her costume and did not want to dance and told me she was scared; but I kept just going on and encouraging. I dropped her off with her class, which was actually kind of scary for me. I had to leave her there 30 minutes before they performed. And I mean, it was so chaotic in that room. She went right to her teacher and went right to sit down with her class and I got away quick before she could look back. But, I was so worried that she was going to just fall apart and cry and not even come out on stage. Or I was worried that she was going to come out and either see us and cry. Or she would not see us and cry. And, while I didn't care if she actually performed or not, my biggest of all fears was that she would be so upset by the whole ordeal that she would not want to go back to dance again. And she loves it, but she is also pretty stubborn and when she decides something scares her or she is not comfortable, it's hard to make her do things. I don't want to push her into misery at age 3.

But, do you know what this precious girl did? She performed and smiled and waved and was the cutest thing I ever saw. I videoed it the best I could and took a few pictures while trying to stay out of her view. But, she saw Atticus and waved to him with these cute little smiles and she did her dance and I was so proud. They have been practicing this dance for weeks now and she talks all the time about her dance to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And she sings the whole song and she will say "pinkie passe" during the parts where her teacher tells her to "plie passe". It's been fun to watch her get ready and I just could not have been more proud to see her do the dance and not get scared or upset the entire time. So, here she is and here is a video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuub6tR9PSk

 So many people!!

I really love taking her to dance every Friday. Every day is either preschool day, church day, girls day (which means just me, her and Everly together for the day) or ballet day as far as Grace is concerned.