On a beautiful, sunny day in May, Tom and I attended our first dance recital. No one in my family had ever taken dance lessons or been in a dance recital. But little Emma Winstead, Steve and Amy’s daughter, has been taking dance lessons this year. She is in the “Toddler Hip Hop” class at Art in Motion School of Dance in Miamisburg. Steve and Amy invite us to be active in Emma’s life, so attending the dance recital sounded like fun.
The dance recital started at 10 a.m. in the theater of Carlisle High School. It was a nice drive and we got there in plenty of time to find our seats. Steve and Amy soon joined us and we eagerly awaited the start of the recital. They explained that Emma would be dancing by herself, as she was the only one in her particular class. Emma just turned four in April, but she is a self-confident, thoughtful, and slightly silly girl with a mind of her own.
It was a joy to watch all the performers. Most of them were “toddler” age, which means preschoolers. Tom and I have worked with kindergartners on field trips and know how difficult it is to make a group of five year olds do anything. These kids were even younger. The little tap dancers would come out and tap, tap, tap – some to the beat, some not. The little ballerinas were very good at putting their arms over their heads and twirling, but they did it in their own time. Generally, if there were eight children on stage, there were eight different dances going on.
Some of the groups had the teachers come out with them. I called these the interpreters. They showed us what the dance was supposed to look like. The children moving around them sometimes reflected the teachers, but usually not. It didn’t matter. What was important was the joy of the children in their movement.
About halfway through the program was Miss Emma’s turn. She came out on stage by herself and proceeded to dance her heart out. The audience was so impressed by her sass and swagger that they clapped along and gave her a rousing ovation at the end of her performance. Because she was the only one dancing, the performance was flawless. She looked like she was having a great time and took several bows. The director of the school came out and gave a special speech about her. Steve and Amy were both so proud – and Tom and I were too!
More acts followed and it was fun to watch all the dancers. At the end, all the groups came out again for a final bow and recognition of the teachers. During this time, the director of the school recognized Emma again and gave her a dinosaur stuffy for doing such a great job. After the show, when Emma was walking out with Amy, people kept stopping her to tell her what a great job she had done. Emma handled all of the recognition with aplomb.
As a reward for doing so well, Emma wanted to play on the playground attached to the school. We walked over and she and Tom had a great time climbing, sliding, and swinging. Emma loves it when Tom comes because he plays very actively with her. I think Tom likes it too.
After the playground, we headed to Dairy Queen for some lunch and ice cream. I asked Emma what her favorite part of the day was, and she said, “dancing on stage by myself!” I’m not sure she will ever be much of a dancer – who can tell when you are four? – but she was certainly the star of this dance recital. She is always a star to us.