Celebrating another wonderful end of year Ballet/Dance Recital

Hagrid, Harry, and Dumledore taking their final bows.

This past weekend was recital weekend. We are all used to it and the crazy schedule, but this year was extra special because Emma had the lead in the story ballet portion of the recital. They did an adaptation of the first Harry Potter book and Emma has the role of Harry. On top of that she also danced with the other upper level ballet students in a production of Balanchine's Serenade. Then she had three separate dances for her jazz, tap and hip hop classes. She was one busy and very tired girl. She did a fabulous job and we are incredibly proud of her. I managed to get some good photos at the dress rehearsal on Friday that I will share below.

I really enjoyed sharing Emma's performance with my Mom, who was visiting from Maryland for the weekend, and with Emma's friend Ally and her Mom and sister, as well as my friend Jen and her daughter Grace.

At the end of the show on Sunday afternoon all of the dancers received ribbons for participating in the recital and the special annual awards were given out. These are new this year and we were thrilled that Emma received the Fossey Award for Best Jazz student. She has a trophy and everything!

I loved the Balanchine Serenade. I am particularly drawn to corps de ballet pieces with lots of combinations and formations where all the dancers work together. I also loved the costumes they wore for this piece -- one of my favorite colors. This work has been called the ballet that changed everything and was a tribute to Balanchine

Emma's hip hop class dance was to the Beyonce song "Who runs the world (Girls)".

The next number was for Tap. They danced to "Walk this Way'. I liked these costumes and thought Emma did a great job -- it was her first year taking Tap.

The last number of the first act was Emma's jazz class dance. They performed to "Le Jazz Hot" from Victor/Victoria.  The choreography was in the tradition of Bob Fossey.

The second act was Harry Potter -- featuring all the ballet students from the youngest Ballet Movement kids to the Level 7 High School kids.  The director of Emma's school, the Ballet Center, always does a terrific job working everyone in and delivering and actual story ballet and not just separate dances. The costumes were also particularly cool this year: from chess pieces, to flying keys.

Flying Keys

Platform 9 3/4

Flying class

Harry Potter dancing on pointe. 

The Ballet Movement students were Fluffy dogs -- instead of the 3 headed scary dog from the book

Ballet Level 3 did a great job with the chess game. They all had individually made and different chess piece hats.