Cinderella

Last night I dreamed about normal people doing normal things. Except that they all had perfect ballet posture and were in full costume. Oh, and the music of Prokofiev's Cinderella Waltz was in the background the entire dream. Such is the life of a ballet mom who has just survived performance week.

As you might recall, I set reasonable goals for last week. Just get the kids where they need to be on time. I didn't cook, I didn't clean, I forgot just about everything but my name most days, and I still did not achieve my goal! We were 15 minutes late to the first dress rehearsal because it was at a beautiful, brand new high school whose location was unknown to my GPS. So my GPS decided the next best thing was to send me to a location 10 miles away. It all turned out fine though once I called another ballet mom and she became my GPS substitute then met me at the front entrance and whisked Grace and her costumes away while I parked the car. We ballet moms have each other's back like that.

Monday was a normal ballet class day. Tuesday we had off. Wednesday we were in rehearsal for 7 hours. Thursday just 4 hours. Friday night our whole crew, plus Grandma, Uncle Dave and our pastor and his daughter attended opening night. Saturday Grandma, Anna, and I attended again. So I've seen every minute of this ballet at least 4 times, and would be happy to watch it another 400 -- it was one of the best performances I've seen from the company/school (and they are always wonderful). It was a long week, but so much fun. We rolled into the driveway Saturday night just minutes before the clock struck midnight and then we all turned into pumpkins ourselves. I think it will take a few days to recover from the excitement.

This year was a big ballet year for Grace because she got to be in two dances. In the past we've always cautioned the grandparents who come in from out of town to watch her performances, explaining her part is about 3 minutes of a two-and-a-half hour performance. I'm convinced they would have come even if she only danced for 30 seconds, but it was nice that she's finally old enough to have more stage time. First she was one of the ponies that pulls Cinderella's coach. In her second dance she was one of Cinderella's attendants, announcing Cinderella's arrival at the ball. These two scenes were among my favorites in the whole performance, but I'm not biased or anything like that. ; )

I took over 900 pictures. Ready to see them?! Ha! Don't worry I've narrowed them down just a little.  I'm a little bummed that I didn't get better pictures of my own daughter. The first day of rehearsal I took pictures of her dances, but the second day I took video so I didn't have as many opportunities to take pictures of her as I did the other dancers. They really discourage taking pictures during the actual performance and don't allow video those nights either, so rehearsal is when I take my pictures. It also allows me to simply enjoy performance night.

Cinderella is a story that people from every generation and culture are familiar with, so I'll skip most of the commentary. You're welcome. Oh, but you might want to open that link to Prokofiev's waltz again while you view the pictures -- it will be stuck in your head for days, but it might make sweeping floors more pleasant. : )

Grace is the pony on the end, smiling at us.

Not part of the performance, but the girls liked to call themselves the disco ponies.

I was very impressed with Cinderella's acting skills -- she teared up every time she did this scene.

With Grandma

Daddy and his little girl.