Winter show 2017

The girls are fortunate to be a part of a dance studio that has some pretty great values of fun over fame and inclusion of all kids. (Granted there are a few things that Ryan would like to change about the studio, but I'll leave his rant out of this post).

This past weekend they took part in the annual winter show. I'm so grateful that this (Christmas themed show) is held after the holidays or we may not get a chance to be a part. With all of the busy-ness of the holidays, adding extra weekend practices and a crazy show week to the mix would likely put me over the edge.

So after much anticipation and a lot of practice, we headed to a new local theater for dress rehearsal in a packed house! There were nearly 400 people at dress rehearsal alone; I'd say that was pretty good practice.

Each of the girls take part in 3 separate classes.

Regan does ballet, lyrical and danceline.

Sidney does acro (more on that in a bit), jazz and tap.

Regan got some compliments on her high kicks after her number at each show. She bashfully blushes and gets high on cloud 9 to know she is doing well on stage. Those legs of hers are l-o-n-g!

And this little one knows how to shake it up there. I chuckled that 2 of her teachers must have choreographed the dances with Sidney in mind. She sure can shake her hips!! I have a video of her at age 3 up on stage shaking away....she's a natural :)

This is her first year in acro (and only the 2nd for the studio). It's a class that combines gymnastics and dance. And she LOVES it! Might have something to do with the fact that during the winter show the younger class was combined with the older kids, or the fact that she aspires to be an Olympic gymnast one day.

Check out that tuck jump!

For weeks upon weeks, all that we heard was "I get to climb under Sarah!". We didn't exactly know what that meant but it meant the world to her to dance with an older girl.

This was show #2, just look at how cute and happy she was!

I love it :)

These girls put in countless hours of practice leading up to the show. There was some blood, sweat and tears and yet they adored every second of being on stage.

In the end, they were in 3 shows, dancing a total of 9 dances each spanning across 12 hours! Talk about a long day. We were all exhausted!