This weekend I had my Acro & Jazz Dance Recitals and our school’s May Fair!

He said

So right out of our competition/camp weekend last week, we ran head-long into more performances this weekend. This weekend was the year end performances for both of Emelia’s Acro and Jazz Dance classes. They have been practicing for weeks for this and Emelia is very excited that the performance is at the Paul Davenport Theatre at Western University. Not only is their wardrobe changes and makeup, but it’s also on a very professional looking stage with theatrical lighting and sound.

There are performances all weekend and Danielle and Emelia have spent a good portion of their day yesterday shuttling back and forth from the theatre for dress rehearsals and the first performance. And, Danielle volunteered to help in both occasions. But tonight, is the night that Danielle and I have tickets to go see the performance and we’re pretty excited. As much as Emelia is really bummed that she won’t be returning next fall to Dance London, the reality is we expect she will have at least the same (if not more) training hours of gymnastics and the way the schedule has changed for Acro & Jazz, it’s virtually impossible for us to make it work.

We’re so delighted that Emelia has taken on – with such passion – these extra circulars and managed to make new friends outside her tight ring at school, the reality is there were few weeks through the last season where she wasn’t upset about not having enough free time. She literally had one night off any activity and while she’s sad that this is coming to an end, she does remember the schedule taking away free time. Not to mention, it will certainly make our ability to budget that much easier as we hadn’t banked on the two classes being linked and one necessary for the other when we researched giving Acro a whirl.

And while all this is going on we have an impatient eleven year old wanting to know what level she will be training at next year for gymnastics. It’s either going to be moving up to the Level 3 Provincial Team or Level 4. Naturally Emelia want’s 4 because that means new routines, and new challenges. But, I also see the value in her spending another year at 3 but being able to compete Provincially and the comfort of routines she knows where she can focus on strength and tightening up her routine. Either way she’s all in but she has woken every morning this week asking Danielle first thing if she’s gotten the email yet because she remembers last year it came in, in the morning. We’ll know soon enough, just not soon enough for her.

It was a bummer this week to put the trailer back in storage until the next trip but I did text Danielle on my way back from dropping Wolfie Too off that we were only 24 sleeps until the next trip out. And as of today, that number is now 19 sleep! Only 3 weeks and then we’re out for a week up to the Muskoka’s at Arrowhead Provincial Park where we’ve been and loved. And the best part is we’ll be able to squeeze in some visits with Uncle Todd, Aunt Charlie and Marshall!! Emelia is over the moon about that. There’s plenty to keep us busy until that I’m sure in no time I will be making arrangements to go bring Wolfie Too back to our driveway!!

She said

What an amazing but busy weekend. For the better part of a year Emelia has been training and learning a whole new skill set in dance. She took some dance when she was really little but this is the first time she took one at a true dance studio with full production. And what a production it was!

Emelia always amazes me when she pushes herself outside her comfort zone, for a pretty shy kid she went on a big stage tonight in front of a sold out crowd and danced her heart out tonight. And what a dance, what grace, strength and poise she showed. It was really absolutely amazing. Emelia took to dance naturally and it doing dance this year really helped her in her gymnastics performances as well. It really does break our hearts that she won’t likely be able to continue with dance again next year. With increased demands on Emelia and honestly with her advancing with gymnastics taking on another expensive, and time consuming sport is just not possible. We received next years schedule for dance and Emelia’s suggested placements and getting her there on the early evenings is just not possible. We have certainly had a very sad girl the last few weeks as the end of dance season comes to an end. I have been exploring other studios (although we love Dance London) to see if another place had a schedule that would match ours and sadly nothing has been found yet.

Back to the performance. I was blown away at the whole production, the dances were out of this world and the variety of dances, styles it was worth the price of admission for sure. What a night. This whole week has been incredibly busy. We came off a long weekend of gymnastics competitions, and went directly into a week packed with school events and 3 days of dance performances. I am not sure where Emelia is still getting the energy but her parents are certainly tired.

This weekend wasn’t only about dance however. The summer temperatures have finally arrived and it was a fun filled packed weekend. It started out this weekend on Friday night with the annual May Fair at the school. It is the biggest school fundraiser and the kids love it every year. It is a great social event for the entire community letting the parents to visit and catch up. There was lots of laughs and many amazing memories made.

For the rest of the weekend we spent hours at the theatre for dance, hours at gymnastics for Emelia’s training and as many hours in the sun visiting with friends and getting in lots of swim time at our neighbours. All in all it was an amazing week and weekend, one that we will remember for years to come.