Tessa's 13th Dance Recital

I was going to use this post to talk about all the events of this weekend, but I have so much to say about both events that it would just be better to separate them.
Friday and Saturday were long, exhausting, but exciting days. Friday was dance rehearsal, which always goes on forever, and Saturday was the recital. I didn't HAVE to go to the rehearsal, but I always go to help with the costumes and pictures and reminding Mom when Tessa's dance is up next so she can get the camcorder out. Also I like being able to see the dances twice. We didn't get home from rehearsal until 1:00 in the morning and our dancer had to be at the VBC at 9:00!
Despite the lack of sleep and such, Tessa did a wonderful job all day. She was in the opening number for the first time!

I don't have pictures from all of her dances because I just stole these from some other dance moms on facebook. Pictures never turn out well for us so we just left the camera at home this year and relied on other people. Tessa danced a total of 12 times on Saturday, 3 of which were opening number and 2 were her competition dance. She had 3 dances in the Matinee, and the one that wasn't a repeated dance was "World War Z." 

Yep, zombie Tessa. If you haven't heard the title before, the dance was based off of the zombie movie "World War Z" and used the theme music. This was her lyrical dance.

The other 6 dances were in the Evening show. I believe the only dances I couldn't find pictures of were her Ballet, Jazz, and her Tap dances (which is really disappointing because the Tap dance was excellent).

I loved her hip hop dance. I only found one picture from it:

She had two contemporary dances. The pictures from "Homeward Bound" aren't centered on her because the mom was focusing on her daughter and Tessa just happened to be behind her most of the time. But it's something! 

That dance was really super pretty. I found a LOT of pictures from her other contemporary dance. I was so excited for this one because it's to "Run To You" by Pentatonix which is such a beautiful song. Tessa kept a special part of this dance a secret from us.

She did solo turns!!!! Quite a few people in the house cheered for her (especially me). When mom and I saw it at rehearsal we were so surprised and excited. 

I just think this one is gorgeous. I don't know if this was post-solo turn or just another part of the dance but I love how graceful she looks.

This was her ending pose. So pretty. I'm really glad these dance moms got such great pictures of her, especially that one of her mid-spin. 

Like I said, I don't have any pictures of her tap dance, but it deserves a spot in this post.

When I danced, I was the tapper. I didn't enjoy anything but tap. I tested out ballet and jazz a couple times but they were too slow and quiet for me. Last year Tessa's tap dance was super cute, and this year it was absolutely fantastic. At rehearsal, I watched the whole thing with my hands covering my mouth which was wide open in amazement. It was so fast and upbeat and Tessa kept up with the speed with no problem. When the dance was over, I looked over at Mom and just as she shut off the camcorder she started crying. We were so so so impressed and blown away by Tessa's tap dancing. It didn't even occur to me until Mom mentioned that she was with "The Best," meaning the dance class was composed of a group of some of the company's best dancers. I had never even moved my eyes from Tessa. I'm so excited that she's decided to specialize in tap. Us tall people have difficulties getting up off the floor quickly, and I've never seen a tap dance that involves rolling around on the floor. Plus, you know, she's freaking awesome at tap. 

Between the Matinee and Evening show on recital day, we went outside and took some nice family pictures:

And some exhausted family pictures:

I got to see Claire dance too! My lil sister from another mister:

She did a fabulous job as well!

I managed to convince James to make an appearance at the Evening show. I think he liked it. He said he'd come back for the next one so that's a good sign!

Pardon my goofy face. I thought he was making a goofy face too but he tricked me and decided to be cute instead. 

So there you go! 13 recitals down, 1 more to go. Okay, I shouldn't have said that, now I'm trying not to cry. I'm so proud of Tessa and it makes me happy that she's so dedicated to dance. Every year she gets even better and even though I don't get to see her very often because of dance classes, seeing how much her hard work is paying off at recital makes that okay. It's not like I never see her, she did teach me how to ride a bike in April, but sometimes I see her so little that it feels like she's the one off at college! Anyway, the dance recital was wonderful and I can't wait to watch the DVD and watch some of the dances over and over again.