March 29, 2024

Column: My beautiful ballerinas

For three days last week, I was once again in the world of tutus, tights and glitter. My girls had their annual dance recital with Steppin’ Out Dance Studio on Friday and Saturday, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they performed.

The week started with rehearsal on Wednesday at a new venue, George Daily Community Auditorium in Oskaloosa. The usual location, Pella High School’s auditorium, is currently under construction and was not available this year.

Even though it was a slightly longer drive, the auditorium was great and accessibility to the changing rooms was convenient. Rehearsal was set up so groups can get in and out quicker than the typical recital schedule. Our first dance was a little after 4 p.m. and seven dances later were out of the building by 6:30 p.m. Things went smooth, we had all of the pieces of the costumes and the girls smiled, twirled and got a good feeling of the area.

Skip ahead two days later and we were preparing for the dance recital. I braided both of the girls hair and fixed it into a bun on the side for easy maintenance and to keep it out of their face.

We then started the process of make-up. My oldest daughter isn’t particular and was OK with whatever route I went. My youngest daughter, on the other hand, got her own make-up bag and started laying things out for me to begin. We did foundation, powder, blush, eye shadow, glitter eye shadow, lipstick and gloss. She was very pleased with the end product.

To finish up, each kiddo was sprayed with glitter from head to toe to shine under the lights on the stage. We packed into the car and were ready to go.

The girls did great during their dances. My oldest had four routines this year including ballet, tap, jazz and tumbling. My youngest had three, ballet, tap and tumbling.

Each had a favorite dance with my youngest loving her ballet routine to a song from “Tangled,” her favorite Disney princess, and my oldest having a ton of fun with her jazz routine where she got dance like a bee, buzzing and flapping her wings.

Both improved greatly in the second and third years. They followed along most of their dances, started doing more advanced moves and can now do a full cartwheel landing on their feet and tumbling moves that are starting to out pace anything I learned.

After the recitals were over, their second was on Saturday afternoon, they gathered their flowers and praises and we called it a year. I was once again a very proud dance mom watching my little ballerinas up on stage. I can’t wait to see what next year brings in their dance career.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
jpierson@newtondailynews.com