Lillianna's dance recital

Today was Lillianna's dance recital. As usual, I cried through the first dance. She was dressed in white jazz pants with silver glitter,a matching white top which had sort of a sleeve on the left shoulder and a spaghetti strap on the right shoulder and a headband of white poofy feathers. She tap danced to Polar Express.

It was such an upbeat and advanced number and it made me happy that I had switched her into the "older" class this past year. It's always a challenge to actually see her through the blur of my tears but I do my best. Later in the car I asked her,"Do you ever think there will be a time when I won't cry at your recital?" Lillianna answered sarcastically,"I wouldn't count on it!" Ya,she's probably right.

Her ballet dance was beautiful. It's amazing how far these girls have come in five years. Some of the same numbers for the little ones get repeated year after year so when "Wake up, Warm up" was done by the 4 year olds,I looked over to Lillianna and said, "I remember when you did this." Apparently she doesn't remember at all so I will have to show her the scrap book I made of her first recital that has her doing that dance.

Her jazz dance was very jazzy indeed as she danced to "The Witch Doctor." You know,the one that goes, "ooh eeh ooh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang...." All the girls were right in step,shaking their hips,making jazz squares and smiling all the while. My heart just burst with pride.

The finale was "We're all in this together," from High School Musical. I was kind of sad to see it all end. My mom said,"Thank G-d she can dance!" There seemed to be quite a few kids,many older than Lillianna,who didn't know what they were doing and they looked quite uncomfortable being on stage. Lillianna practices her dance steps any time she has floor space and she simply loves to be on stage!

Well,we have about nine more recitals to go before she graduates high school. I don't want to think about how many tissues I'll go through on that day. I'll just take them one year at a time and savor each recital as it comes.

I'm very proud of you,Lillianna. As usual,you were a super star!