dance, little dancer

So, my younger sister Anna had a dance recital last night. She's a student in a 4-year dance program (see her website on my links...). Pretty cool. The dance school also has classes for children and so I thought that it would be a super fun thing to go to with our little family. Unfortunately, Pito decided to start puking the night before, and as she was still going at it during the day of the recital, Ryan and I decided that Plava and I would go on a little date instead of all of us going.

So go we did, and although we arrived late (about 1/2 way through the first half), we caught a few great little kid performances, one of which was "Intro to Dance - ages 3-5". As soon as we walked into the theatre Plava's face was awestruck. My sister was lingering at the back and I chatted with her for only a moment before a small hand yanked me towards some seats. Wow, she was quite taken by all this.

We sat and watched and I explained about clapping after the songs, what tap dancing was, and why sometimes the dancers were lying on the stage while other times they were jumping around. She was utterly enthralled, and was pretty dang cute. She was particularly intruiged by the little 3-5 year olds who were dressed up as little ladybugs and dancing around (in rather random fashion) with their teachers.

The last dance of the first half was one with Auntie Anna in it!! Plava loved it, and loved seeing Anna do her thing, still watching with an awestruck expression on her face.

At intermission I suggested we go wander out in the foyer, and as soon as we were out there, Plava saw some of the kids in their costumes. She dragged me by the hand right up in front of one and, pointing, said, "MAMA!! LOOK!!!" She then just stood there, eyes wide, and stared. (Let me just explain that at this point, Plava was about 2 feet away from the costumed dancer.) Once I peeled her away, she saw another one and did the same. Then another. She was so taken by it all! It was quite cute.

Not long after, she told me that "we should go and sit in the theatre again" so we didn't miss any of the dances (in spite of the fact that I assured her they would announce it over the speakers). So in we went, and we sat down to watch. The second half started, and it was about halfway through the second piece that Plava suddenly said, "I want to go up there and dance."

"Where?" I asked, trying to figure out what my normally extremely timid little girl could be talking about.

"On the stage." She said, plainly.

At this point I didn't really think she was too serious. "You mean you want to take a dance class so that you can do a dance on the stage?"

"NO, I want to dance there, NOW."

Woah. This was new. I can't tell you how much I wanted to allow her to break out of her shell and go dance on the stage in front of that audience!! But I had to explain that this was a show and the dancers had worked really hard to get these dances ready. It was not okay for her to go up and dance with them. I then suggested that she could dance at the back (there was plenty of room behind the last row of seats in the theatre), to which she said "Okay!!!", and proceeded to march down the aisle towards the stage. I quickly ran to get her and upon asking her where she was going realized that she was planning on dancing at the back of the STAGE, right behind the dancers. HAH!!!

So after some more work, I convinced her to dance at the back of the theatre. And dance she did. I couldn't believe it. She danced and danced and danced. The rest of the show was an "interactive" one according to her as she watched and imitated every dance that followed until the show was over. She tried out tap dancing, hip hop, modern (including lying and rolling on the floor), and jazz. Not to mention she sometimes just went wild. Of particular note was her hip hop attitude. She'd be so focussed on trying to watch and imitate the movements of the dancers on the stage that she actually got a bit of a head bobbing, slouch, and the hanging arms that the dancers had. It was unbelievably hilarious!!

After the last dance, as she continued to insist that she wanted to dance on the stage, I suggested that perhaps after the show was ALL done, she could go dance on the stage. She was SO EXCITED!! Throughout the end speeches and flowers and teacher acknowledgements, she kept loudly asking, "ARE THEY GOING TO BE FINISHED SOON?" and when they finally were, she grabbed my hand and dragged me, weaving through hordes of people, straight up to the stage and marched herself up the stairs. When she got up there, she dimmed, gave a little smirk, and decided she'd really like Auntie Anna to dance with her, so after a search around the theatre, we found her and she danced herself silly up there. It was quite a sight to be seen. I could hardly believe that was really Plava I was with.

This afternoon, over lunch, Plava said, "My Auntie Anna is very special to me." I thought that was so nice.

So, I'm looking into getting her into a darn dance class. Might as well, even though today she's feeling a little more timid about the idea. I think she'd like it, and it might give her some more confidence and help her to be more "brave" in general in her little life. Man, I love that crazy kid.