Friday night was dress rehearsal for our end of year recital and Stephanie and I showed up basically dressed as twins. Everyone thought we did it on purpose which is funny because as an adult I would probably not purposefully dress the same as someone else.
Dress Rehearsal went pretty well. We had a hard time figuring out where to put the tape for the littles and where I wanted them and where Eliza, the ballet madam, wanted them were not the same. I let them be where she wanted them for the ballet and it ended up with my kids being really far back on the stage. It was not a good placement for them because they were distracted by the big kid dancers and they could not hear me over the music so I was shouting to get them to hear me and it was a mess. Both classes did well on their tap dances and I was happy about that. When it was time for my twos to do their dance I was a little concerned with how it would go. On Monday during class I had two kids crying which started other kids crying and it was a mess. As I was gathering the two's I had Camille in tears and so I took her form her Mom and told her if she would stop crying I would give her a lollipop. My one goal was to not let the other kids see her crying. I was able to get her to calm down with the promise of a sucker and I decided to keep all of them happy and just handed everyone a lollipop as we were waiting for our turn to go on stage. It worked and they were all content and happy and when they got on stage everyone stayed on their sticker and they all danced! It was amazing and I was so happy!
The day of the recital I got there a little early and talked to Kim and Eliza about the tape placements and expressed my concern. Eliza did not tuna the kids in front of the curtain before started and I wanted the kids as close to the front as possible so they could be seen. We finally agreed to have them behind the curtain and then when the curtains opened that Natalia who was a big kid dancer dancing on the stage with them would put them forward on their stickers before the music started. We were the opening number for the ballet and while it was not what Eliza wanted exactly I felt it was a good compromise. Kim and I arranged the stickers and then I showed them to Eliza to see if she was ok with it. She seemed fine and I told her thank you and that I loved her. I meant it in the I really appreciate you working with me kind of sense but right after I said it she told me it didn't feel that way. I was taken aback and said that if I did anything that weekend to upset her that I was really sorry and that I was just advocating for my kids and their parents. She told me that she felt that I have been a problem for her since day one and that any thing she tried to do I pushed back on and she didn't say it but it seemed she was saying I was hard to work with. I really could not understand where this was coming from and kept apologizing for anything I might have done to makeover feel this way but she was stone cold during my apologies and would not say a word or give me anything in return. I finally had to just say "Ok" abbd walk away. I racked my brain the rest of the night trying to figure out why she would feel that way and I honestly could not come up with anything. I have always been kind to her and so appreciative of her help with the ballet and the dances she would give me. After talking to Stephanie and Kefford and Heather about it I finally had to accept it was a her problem and there was nothing I could do about it accept just make sure to be kind moving forward. It really did put a damper on the day for me and even though my kids performed amazing I let the cloud of our conversation hang over me.
My kids did amazing in their dances, I was so proud of them and just really happy with how they performed. The adult tap class always does a theme dance and this year they danced in blow up dinosaur costumes. They came off the stage as we were walking through the dressing room headed to the stage and Laine was not paying attention when suddenly she looked up and saw a dinosaur standing in front of her. She screamed bloody murder and it was all I could do to get her calmed down and on the stage. I felt bad for her she really was hysterical and I was able to get her to stop freaking out and go on stage but I don't think she danced very much.
I did the lollipop trick with my two's class again and they did a great job on stage. I got a lot of compliments on how well I handled my class of 12 two years, it was pretty great to hear.
Every year since I have started teaching I always got a picture with my classes before they got on stage. This year I think because of my conversation with Eliza I did not and it really upset me when I realized I did not get my picture with every class. I had parents send me pictures they took and I was able to get ahold of our class pictures but I really am so sad I did not get my traditional picture with my kids.
l-r: Italia, Harper and Hattie
Nora and Hazel
Amy Priddy, dance mom, brought pizza for some of us dance teachers and we ate it during our break but after the recital Stephanie and I grabbed some more to eat. We were so tired and so spent, I love the picture that one of the other teachers took of us. We were exhausted and you can see it in our faces.
I got some really sweet gifts from some of my dancers and my 11:15 class pitched in and got me a target gift card. All of it was greatly appreciated and helped me feel special and loved.
KinderStars 9:30 class
top picture: standing; Italia, Wilma, Phoebe, Kirra, Nora, Hattie
kneeling; Presley, Ashley, Caroline, Angel and Hazel
(missing Jovie and Keeva)
TinyStars
standing: Bren, Bonnie, Juliet, Sloan, Camille and Georgia
sitting: Ellery, Kalli, Mattea, Declan, Claire and Harper
KinderStars 11:15 class
Standing: Nora, Ada, Blakely, Teddy, Poppy and Kate
Kneeling: London, Laine, Madeline, Maddie, Khenedee and Arina
standing: London, Madeline, Laine, Maddie, Arina and Khenedee
kneeling: Kate, Poppy, Blakely, Teddy, Ada and Nora
Sunday night Kyle and Nikki had us over to play games and we talked about the recital a little bit. Their little one Claire is in my twos class and they told me how impressed they were with the recital. Kyle said as I was getting the two's on stage that throughout the audience he could hear people commenting on my patience and how good I was with those kids. I loved hearing it!
