Callie's 1st Dance Recital

Starting last August Callie attended a dance class run by the Diana Evans School of Dance. She had a wonderful teacher, Miss Lauren, and every Tuesday morning Callie got excited as we made sure she had her dance bag to take to school. At dinner most nights she wanted to show off her latest "dance moves" and took to spinning and jumping whenever the opportunity presented itself.

But looming on the horizon was the end of the year recital. Sarah knew what to expect because she had attended the big end of the year recital the year before. This is no little deal. Diana Evans takes her recitals seriously and they are held at the Lexington Opera House. Several weeks prior to the big event, Callie kept changing her mind about whether or not she wanted to perform. We just continued to go through the motions and must admit, engaged in just a little bit of bribery. All in all, the three rehearsals leading up to the recital included a combination of tears, running off stage, and glimmers of excitement and dance that led to ice cream rewards.

So when the big night finally arrived, we tried to maintain a calm demeanor and kept our expectations low. When all was said and done, we wanted Callie to have fun. But we were also feeling a little guilty because Grammy Gayle would be in attendance and the Chrismans had also chosen to join us. We hoped they might be rewarded with an appearance by Callie on stage. It was high drama.

For those of you who have never had a son or daughter participate in a dance recital, you might want to sit down before looking at this picture. Yes, they are wearing makeup. We had to borrow some from other moms since Sarah's supply is limited at best. Here Callie poses with her friends and classmates, Vivie Ann and Maya. Thank goodness for them and for their moms. This was the outfit for the first of the two dances the girls performed that night.

The second dance had a UK theme and the moms got to join their daughters on stage for the show. Of course, the dance incorporated eight lifts to celebrate the eight NCAA basketball championships won by the Wildcats over the years. Even at dance recitals at an opera house you cannot escape the C-A-T-S in Kentucky.

The evening was certainly a success. We were on the edge of our seats for the first dance, and became extremely excited when we saw Callie walk out on stage. She stared at her teacher off stage the whole time and refused to look at the audience. But she did every move and stayed on stage the whole time. We were so proud of her and more importantly, she was so proud of herself. It was a great moment. We were also happy to see that the neon green costume looked much better on stage than it did in our closet at home.

The UK-themed dance wasn't quite as successful. Callie didn't want to join the dancing until the parents went onstage, which pretty much meant she came on stage so that Sarah could lift her in the air eight times. Trying to make the most of the dance, Sarah felt it was necessary to ensure Callie was lifted higher than any other child onstage. As one of the members of the audience, I, John, can say that I clearly saw Callie flying up in the air.

And any successful dance recital is traditionally rewarded with flowers, and Grammy was ready to give Callie her first post-recital bouquet. We also promised Callie ice cream, but had to convince her that it would be more enjoyable to do that the next night since we didn't get out of the performance until about 10pm. As we said earlier, Diana Evans does not kid around.