Just Dance!

So the weekend of the dance recital finally came...a little too soon to my liking. With my past experience preparing for competitions, it was strange going into a dance performance without EXTENSIVE cleaning. While it was definitely nerve-racking, it was actually really nice to just dance it the way I wanted to dance it.

Let me back up a little bit.

Starting October 2009, I joined a dance class at Jive for "retired dancers". What does that mean? Oh, it's just a self-appointed name we gave ourselves meaning "we're too old to really be dancing, but we're going to do it anyway". There were seven of us, ranging from ages 22 to 28 (two of which were college roommates/best friends). All the girls were SO cute and it was such a blast each week.

The recital was quite an exhausting process and required a lot of time off of work (such a strange situation, since I never really had a job when I was dancing in high school). We had to put a full day in on Thursday just for a dress rehearsal. Friday, we had to be there in the early evening so we could be ready for two performances that night, one at 6:00 and one at 8:00. After a tiring night of performing, we had to be right back at it again on Saturday at 2:00...followed by two more shows at 6:00 and 8:00. Yes, that's right...that's FIVE performances!

And not to complain or anything (I take that back, I'm actually just complaining), but Thursday and Friday were spent in agony due to my overexertion on Wednesday, frantically trying to learn the opening and closing numbers for the dress rehearsal (Jaleah, Bryton, and Sarah know what I'm talking about!). I pulled something in my neck, making it very hard to dance full out without sending a shock through my body. To add a little seasoning to this disaster of a concoction, I woke up with a miserable sore throat and head cold on Saturday! That's just my life though, if I'm ever looking forward to, or excited about something...I swear I always get sick!

Somehow I pulled through and still had such a fun time. It was so exciting to have Jason come see me perform (his first time ever seeing me dance)! Definitely something I would do again.

Thanks to others taking pictures, here are a few shots of us getting ready to go on stage:

When September Ends

(Contemporary)

Crystal, Sarah, Bryton, McKenzie, me, Jaleah, and Vicki

Freeze

(Hip Hop)

Have You Ever Loved a Woman

(Lyrical)

Sweet Jason had this waiting at home for me:

My favorite daisies from my favorite boy :)