Naomi's Dance Recital

Naomi had her dance recital for her pre-tap/ballet class this past Saturday. She's had a dance recital with the dance class she does at daycare, but this was the first real dance recital she's been in. The recital was at the Nutley Middle school, on a real stage, with a dress rehearsal, backstage waiting wing, dressing rooms, photo shoots, costumes, stage makeup etc. All in all, her dance was only 2 mins, but it was so exciting and fun non the less.

On Friday, Nai Nai drove up for the show. She watched Mikaela while Naomi and I headed over to the middle school for the rehearsal. Each dance class had about 5 mins on stage, but had to be there 15 minutes prior to their slotted time. And of course everything was running a bit late. It was mass chaos with little kids running around everywhere. I seriously felt like I was in a terrible nightmare scene from toddlers and tiara's.
Naomi was a little impatient as we waited in the audience for her class to be called up. She kept asking when it was going to be her turn to go on stage and dance. But at the same time, she liked watching all the other classes on stage and had her eyes glued to the stage the entire time.
When it was our turn to go backstage and lineup, she practically ran backstage. Some of the other girls were a little antsy and nervous, and their mom's were worried about whether their kids would dance, or melt down on stage. I was more worried about whether Naomi would melt down when her turn was done.
They ran through their dance number once on stage. Naomi did a great job, following the teachers and was very focused. I seriously am shocked by how a girl who is as shy as she is, and takes forever to warm up to people, even friends we see almost every week or every day, can get up on stage and have no stage fright whatsoever.

The next day was the day of the actual show. We were supposed to get there an hour before the actual show started, but I knew that we would end up just sitting around waiting, and didn't want to press my luck with Naomi behaving and being patient enough. So we went a little late, probably giving ourselves 30 mins before the show to get there, get dressed, have her photo taken with the photographer and touch up her "stage makeup". Yes stage makeup was really just mommy's makeup, and it was possibly the one thing she was most excited about. She actually tried to tell me that she was supposed to wear mommy makeup for the dress rehearsal as well. She didn't win that argument. The entire time we were in the dressing rooms, she kept asking for touch ups, wanting more glitter, more lipstick, more blush, more eyeshadow. Even while waiting in the wings she was asking for a touchup. Everything was really light though, so she didn't look like a crazy toddler in a pageant show. There were definitely some kids with mascara, bright red lipstick etc, but I just couldn't bring myself to put much more than pink gloss and some light eyeshadow and blush. I had no issues with glitter overdose. It was a winter recital after all! Luckiy all the other girls in her class had similar minded parents, so she wasn't begging for red lips or heavy makeup. Thank goodness.
For the dance, she did such a great job. She got distracted halfway through the number, and was just staring out at the audience while doing a reptitive plie, it was hilarious seeing her doing the same move over and over while the other kids were moving on to doing little turns etc. But then she realized she wasn't following her dance teacher, and started doing the moves later on. When the song was over, she nearly jumped for joy she was so excited by the applause, and you could tell she didn't want to get off stage cause she was the last one off and was still standing on stage as the curtains closed.
Sure enough when I went backstage to pick her up, she was fussy and kept saying she wanted to dance more. Thankfully going back into the audience, Austin greeted her with a pink bouquet of flowers (because as Naomi would say "PINK IS MY FAVORITE COLOR!"),. That cheered her up a bit.
Then they had to go back stage again at the end of the show and take a final bow with all the other classes. I made the mistake of taking her boquet and asking Austin to hang on to them. When we got backstage and all the kids had their flowers, she was upset and kept asking for her flowers the entire time she was on stage, and didn't end up smiling at all. But honestly, not many kids were cause it was pure CHAOS with all the kids marching on stage all at once to take a bow, and all the parents rushing the stage to try and get a photo (despite the rules that no video and no photos were allowed during the show).

It was definitely chaotic, but it was so much fun. She has another recital with the daycare on Thursday evening. It'll definitely be much more laid back for everyone, so that will be a nice change in pace. But I'm already looking forward to the next ballet recital in June.