Dance Competition

Hi all, I know it's been awhile but honestly I haven't had too much exciting to blog about and I've been terribly lazy.   The Beast has pretty much been the same but I'll blog about him on another day.  Today I am going to brag about my seven year old daughter and her dance team.

This weekend I got to experience my first official dance competition and it was pretty fantastic.  We did a practice one a few weeks ago so I kind of knew what to expect but it was pretty amazing.  The whole group of Tiny Techers were there, which was 17 girls and 1 boy.   They did dances to two songs within an hour of each other so in between we had to get them changed, touch up hair and make up and make sure everything was organized because the awards were immediately following their second dance. 

I have to admit, I thought that they would never really do all that well since there are so many of them.  A lot of the group are 5 and 6 year olds and we all know how it is trying to get them to do anything, it's literally like herding cats.   It's nothing against the children or the teacher, nobody could get them all to do every move perfectly in sync and not make a single mistake but they did great!  

The way the scoring works is basically this:  They do each of their dances and get rating out of three (each dance company calls it something different so I am going to use 1, 2 and 3).   Then, at the end of all the dances getting their rating, they do an "overall" top five from each age group and style of dance.  

The kids first dance was to the song "Step In Time" from Mary Poppins where they were chimney sweeps.  Out of the two it is not their favorite dance and with a few of the kids you can definitely tell they aren't as into it.   They received a 3 for the dance.  Here is a picture of Olivia ready for this dance:

The next dance was titled "Chihuahua" from Beverly Hills Chihuahua and it is their favorite dance and so fun to watch.   For that dance they received their first 2.  Here is Olivia ready to dance for the one.  For each of the dances they received a ribbon.

Then, they held the overall awards and the kids received a SECOND PLACE for their dance to Chihuahua!!!  It was so exciting and made all the stress and anxiety totally worth it.   For that they received a medal.  Here is Olivia with her awards:

Olivia is very competitive and the whole way there she was hoping they would get better than a "3".  She strives for perfection and no matter how hard I try, I can't convince her that she doesn't have to be perfect.  When she got home she was proudly wearing her medal and I don't think she's taken it off since.