Our First Ballet Eisteddfod

If you had to ask 7 year old Cindy to strap on her ballet shoes and stand on a stage in front of a hundred people, you would have seen smoke because I would have run away so quickly.  If you’d have asked her to dance a solo as well as a group performance she would have laugh cried in your face in panic.  Doing things in front of people is just so not my thing.

So when it was time for Kyla to decide if she wanted to be in the Ballet Eisteddfod this year, I didn’t push it.

In fact, I was ready for her to flat out refuse.

She never mentioned it to me (but that’s no big surprise, getting information from her is like pulling teeth).  So I casually approached the conversation.  Started by saying that her teacher had told me about it and she could choose to do the group and the solo or just one or the other, or if she wanted to she could skip it all.  No pressure.

Imagine my surprise when she declared that she wanted to do BOTH of them.  The solo and the group performance.

I was astounded.  This parenting thing constantly throws little curve balls at me – just when I think I know how something is going to go down, my kids prove otherwise.   Every damn day.

Anyway.

On Friday she put on her tights and her brand new ballet shoes and headed for the Sea Point Civic Centre for her solo performance.  I took her into the dressing room and helped to get her into her costume for the day.  Getting her hair into a tight bun, with the help of lots of gel.  Then Maria (her teacher) put on their make up.

Even though I wasn’t supposed to still be there, I couldn’t help but take ALL the photos.  (We weren’t allowed to take any during the actual performance so this was the closest I was going to get to capturing these very precious first memories.)  I need to figure out how to buy those.

Then it was time to leave her and head into the darkened auditorium.

Our whole family came – Shane and Cat, my Mom, Seth’s parents and Grandmother.  Even Kyla’s school teacher came to watch her.

Look, I have no idea how she felt waiting for that curtain to open or her music to start, but I was sitting on the very edge of my seat.  We didn’t know what her number was, so when they called 32 and she walked onto the stage we held our breath.  I can’t actually explain the feelings I felt as I watched my 7 year old daughter dance her little heart out.  On the stage, with all the bright lights and all the people watching.  I was giddy with joy and pride that she was able to do this at all, never mind the fact that she was completely alone and unprompted by her teacher.

Complete and utter AWE.  She was GREAT!  Even if I do say so myself.

The second day for the group performance was much the same except that I couldn’t stay and sneak in lots of pictures.  They did a group frog dance and it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.  They made it into the finals in a couple of weeks which just so happens to be Knox and my party but whatevs, we’ll make it work.

It’s so wonderful to be able to sit back and watch our kids bloom into the little people that they are going to be.  Independent of us.  It’s scary as all heck, but it’s wonderful at the same time.

So proud of you my Kyla bell!

To prove that we were there Riya and Knox took some pictures…