Best thing from final week of dance class

One of the very fun things our dance studio does at the end of the semester is below. During the last week or so of classes, at the end of the class, they pull all of the students who are in class at the moment (so could be up to 5 classes at once) into the big studio and have them do their recital piece for each other. That's pretty usual for studios (LSB did the same)...but what CBA does that I love is that after watching each other, they then all take turns "dancing" each others dances!

The main group stays in the front to guide, while everyone else tries to dance along after watching. So you get an older tap group trying to do a much younger class's ballet piece... or in this case, older jazz dancers trying to do Henry's class's tap piece. I love this video clip so much - the older dancers all watching Henry to learn tap from him! And he's just doing his thing. All the feels!

And I find this especially relevant with the hubbub last week over comments made on GMA about "boys being embarrassed to take ballet". Dance, any sort of dance, is just as much of a sport as any other physical activity, and it should be recognized as such! I'm proud of my dancer, and this video shows that.

Contemporary on the floor

After Natalie's summer dance classes were over (they have a 6 week session prior to the 3 week intensive that she is currently 2/3 of the way through), Charlottesville Ballet sent us parents whose daughters were in the summer contemporary class a video of one of the floor routines they were working on. It's a bit repetitive, as they were really practicing getting the motions correct going both left and right across the floor. So, I cut it down to show just the movement, as I thought it was really love especially with the music.

As I said, Natalie has spent the past two weeks in a 7 hour a day dance intensive, and I know at the show this Friday they're going to show us multiple pieces, including a contemporary, that they've learned. I'm really looking forward to seeing it!

Cinderella: On Stage

In my previous post I shared photos of Natalie and her friends backstage at Cinderella; this post are my favorite photos I took of her on stage during the dress rehearsal.

Leaping elves and fairies!

Now is when the elves warn Cinderella that midnight is approaching...

And at the end of the ballet, I captured these more close-up shots of my girl. Her placement on stage was perfect! (I was trying to stay out of the way as I took my shots)

What a beautiful finale to a beautiful show!

Backstage at Cinderella

Natalie's first big performance with Charlottesville Ballet was in March 2019. She had auditioned for a role in January, and got one of the 40 spots that over 70 girls auditioned for! We were so proud of her, especially for being new to the school.

They performed Cinderella, which was choreographed by the head of the Southwest Ballet Company (including using his costumes and some of his male dancers for a few roles). The girls worked very hard for 3 months, as did the company members, and then gave two performances in Charlottesville and two the following weekend in Lynchburg. I volunteered backstage both weekends, which let me get a lot of fun backstage photos of the girls!

The Charlottesville performance was at the Paramount Theater on the Downtown Mall. We had about 24 girls plus a couple of parents wedged into this small dressing room for the show, but they did great!

They were excited by the mirrors lining the room in which they could get ready.

 

One of the coolest things at the Paramount is that through the backstage hallways, people who have taken part in performances have signed the walls. It's so cool to walk through and experience! Even cooler, is at only 11 years old, Natalie's name is now there!

 

In escorting them to/from the stage, I was able to grab a couple of photos with my phone from the sidelines.

 

You'll see Natalie appear in the video below with her fairy friend in blue.

Like I said, the following weekend we headed down to Lynchburg for two performances there. Natalie and I stayed in a lovely hotel on Friday night, after dress rehearsal, and had plenty of time on Saturday morning before we had to arrive at the theater to go for a nice walk! There's a beautiful walking path over the river, and it turns out there was a St Patrick's Day 5K that we inadvertently took part in.

I have a lot of photos from Lynchburg that I took from the sidelines but they didn't all come out that well; this is a collage of the 3 I took that I liked the most.

I did take a bunch of photos with my actual camera during dress rehearsal in Charlottesville; I have gotten those edited and will next post my favorite stage photos of my girl!

WCDE 2019

Dance, dance, dance! We just finished up the kids' first recitals with C'ville Ballet Academy, so I've definitely got dance on the brain. So many amazing photos to share! But before that, a couple of other dance activities Natalie participated in over the past few months, starting with an oldie but a goodie: WCDE!

Even though Natalie couldn't compete, since her new studio doesn't attend this conference, and she isn't dancing with LSB anymore, we could still go so she could take part in the workshops and cheer on her friends. I have to say, I was really proud of her this year - picking up choreography quickly has not always been easy for her, and they only have an hour per workshop to learn each dance. This year, she was exponentially faster at picking them up, and she had a really great time in each class!

She particularly has started enjoying hip-hop (I think she might actually take it at her studio next fall), and I was proud of her for asking for clarification from the instructor, who came out on the floor to show her.

He was a favorite of all of our dancers!

There was also jazz (another favorite) - she's in the blue pants.

And ballet!

And finally, the routine that got this song stuck in my head for AGES (I seriously do not know how many times we heard this portion over and over again). But it was one of her favorite routines, and she still talks about it every time we hear the song on the radio!

We got to stay in the hotel with friends, and I was so glad for both of us to spend the weekend with everyone.

 

Fun with friends from Leesburg

In February, we were fortunate to host three of Natalie's Leesburg friends! Her friends Bella and Bridgette came first, to join Natalie at a modern dance workshop at CBA and then to spend the night. The girls all agreed that the workshop was not exactly what they were looking for, but they were glad to have tried something different.

And of course, no sleepover with friends is now complete without some time in our hot tub!

Followed by movie and dog cuddle time on the couch!

Then, a couple of weekends later, we did a kid-swap with the Carlsons - Lily came to our house for the night, while Henry went to their house for a sleepover with Lily's brother Garrett. We had a lovely dinner out, and the girls stayed up late having lots of fun catch-up time in person.

What did I say above? Gotta have hot tub time!

And the boys had a blast too! Love this photo of them :)

Companies in Concert Fall 2018

I wanted to do a really in depth post on this, Natalie's final show as part of the Showkids company at Loudoun School of Ballet, but as I'm coming up on being 4 months behind, I've realized that I just have to start condensing posts. There just isn't any other way to get caught up, and given how crazy my next couple of months are, the likelihood of me spending the time needed each night to do this is pretty much nil. Especially when I have an awesome cross stitch to work on!

So instead I show here, with very little narrative, my favorite photos of Natalie and her friends from the show. She was so excited for her dances this year, and her energy on stage really showed.

 

I did my best to get photos of Natalie with all of her friends...

 And managed to get one of all of the Showkids together before they went on stage.

Because it was Natalie's last show, I asked and was allowed to take photos of her onstage during dress rehearsal. I was going to do a whole separate post of these, but again in the interest of moving things along, here is my favorite photo of her from each of her 3 dances.

Observation Week 2018: Henry tap

This year was Henry's first year trying tap. He'd always said before that it was too loud, but then he changed his mind and wanted to take it. Ms. Lynn, the new tap teacher, did a great job with the little ones! I like that during their warm ups, they each got to go solo across the floor.

Then it was time to practice going backwards - much harder!

And at the end, working on their recital piece. they definitely got better with each repetition! It's a fast piece of them, but they worked really hard.

Henry is continuing both tap and jazz this year at Charlottesville Ballet Academy; thanks to Ms. Lynn for getting Henry started in tap!

Observation week 2018: Henry jazz

I was also able to watch Henry's jazz and tap classes during Halloween week. His friend Garrett was in his jazz class, so I got a ton of photos and videos of Harry Potter and Mario dancing together, which could not have been cuter.

Who knew that "We Will Rock You" was the exact right speed/beat for learning pas-du-burre?

Fun dancing to Around The World - Ms. Danielle loves this song, as do we!

And rocking out some across-the-floors with a little hip hop twist.

And you'll see at the end of that last video where he ended standing against the wall next to his friend Lily. It was too cute that I put together this little triptych of photos. If they were older I'd say Lily just shut Henry down pretty hardcore :D

Observation Week 2018: Natalie wrap-up

And because the other posts from my observation week with Natalie would have been much longer if I'd included these with them, here are a video each from Broadway jazz (gotta love warming up to "Fever"!)

Some across-the-floors in Contemporary

And their full dance in lyrical. I love this! I'm sad she won't get to do it in the recital.

Observation Week 2018: Natalie ballet

After watching jazz during Halloween week, I was able to watch a ballet class. Nothing like watching my dark fairy perfect her leg and arm placement!

To be a good ballerina, you have to build up those strong leg muscles.

And practice your routines across the floor.

Even when your mom is right there recording you!

The ballet training Natalie got at LSB is serving her so well as she has transitioned to Charlottesville Ballet Academy, her new ballet school. We are so appreciative of everything Natalie learned at LSB, and she really misses her teachers!