The Big Performance

Well, today was the big day. The day when Olivia would get to perform on center stage and show us all what she has been doing at dance for the last 8 months. She was super excited to get on her costume and for me to do her hair and make up. We played the Wiggles CD on the way to the high school so that she could get in the grove and everything was OK until we got inside and she saw how big the stage was and how many lights there were. I managed to get her shoes and gloves on and once her group were called over to practice she seemed OK. I told Spense that he needed to make sure that he record the practice since you never know what might happen afterwards. Here she is....

Sad to be with mom

Yes, I was the only mom out there with my daughter!

I was so proud of her little moves and I felt like we had come such a long was at overcoming all of the shyness that she had in the beginning.

Well, the program began and Olivia's group walked out. I could tell that she wasn't a big fan of the lights and all of the shadows on the background, but she seemed OK. The music started, and unfortunately she didn't. She stood with her head down, with a grumpy face for the whole thing. We were all so sad and Thomas just kept saying, "She's not doing anything!"

The performance of her life!

She had one last chance to redeem herself with "Rock-A-Bye Your Bear" and I was worried at first, but she eventually joined in.




After that final dance I went out to collect her and we watched the end of the program. As we left everyone talked about her and how cute she looked. They were all just trying to be nice because the simple truth of the matter was that she might have looked cute, but she didn't do anything! She was kind of grumpy for the rest of the evening. She didn't want to take her costume off, but she didn't want pictures either. It was like she knew that she hadn't done her best job and so she was mad about it. To try and console her we went down to the deli by the bay and had something to eat. Olivia let the chocolate cake melt all of her cares away and gave me the best smile of the day right there.

The biggest smile of the day

When we got home we put the video on to rewatch the event. Spense had thought that it was just stage fright, but after watching it, it just looks to me like something made her mad and she decided that she wasn't going to dance and so she didn't. That is my Olivia! As we watched the video it was clear that she was upset by the whole thing. She refused to watch her failure to dance again and cried for us to turn it off. Maybe she'll do what she should next time! But, with Olivia you never know!