Comp Weekend

The long awaited moment: the day they get to roll into comp TOGETHER as dancers! 

Emma gets her game face on!

One of the older girls helps Grace with her lashes. 

Grace and Lily get ready. 

The Junior team is ready to take the stage! 

Miss Lauri and her minis! 

Emma helps Lily get ready. 

Michael and the musical theater team girls! 

Rollin' out of day one like a boss!
(Best. Dance Dad. Ever.)

Celerbating the end of Day One at The Queen's Cups! 

The Junior team is ready for Day Two (and the production number)!

Comp #2 is in the books and what a weekend it was! The entire CSDS dance team was beyond amazing! Each number put on that stage was incredible, and the awards showed that! They came home with so many platinum and platinum pluses, as well as first, second and third places in their categories and age groups! All of the girls worked so hard and they all left it on that stage this weekend! Such an amazing bunch of dancers ,coaches and families. We are truly blessed to be part of such a wonderful dance family and to have our girls as part of such an incredible dance team! xo 

It's Competition Day!

Our day started bright and early Saturday morning. We were up before the sun. We woke the girls up with our version of "It's Coronation Day" from Frozen- though we changed it into "It's Competition Day! We cranked the music up loud, and I came bursting into their bedroom singing "It's Competition Day!" That got them up and dressed pretty quickly, then it was downstairs for me to do Grace's hair and make-up while Dave made breakfast. Once a hearty breakfast was in our bellies we loaded up the car and headed to Worcester. We arrived at the school a little after 6:30am and Grace and I made our way to the cafeteria turned dressing room where she got into her production costume and had her fake eyelashes put on by one of the other dance team moms (thank goodness for this amazing village of dance team moms)! It didn't take long for her to decide that she loves wearing fake eye lashes and if truth be known was so smitten with them she spent a good long while looking in the mirror of her Caboodles totally in awe of those lashes!

The production number was the second dance of the day and those girls absolutely killed it! They were truly amazing and continued to wow the audience with each dance they performed throughout the rest of the day!

Grace danced the best we have ever seen her dance in each of the four numbers she was in. Sadly, I have no pictures of the Junior Team's jazz dance from this comp but I'll be sure to take a few next time!

The day ended with Center Stage coming  home with many, many awards! It was a wonderful start to the competition season and we are counting down to the next one already! xo 

And That's A Wrap!

And just like that their first competition season has come to an end. These girls worked so very hard  this year and it absolutely showed this weekend! Watching them dance their jazz dance for the final time (in competition) yesterday brought tears to my eyes. There they were, up on stage, dancing their hearts out and totally killin' it and there I was a weepy mess in the audience. I've seen them dance both dances easily a thousand times before and yet, yesterday, they danced  the best I have ever seen them.

The transformation of all the girls as dancers, teammates and friends from that first practice in September to their final dance of this competition yesterday is truly remarkable! It speaks volumes not only to the dedication that each girl brought to the team, and the amazingness that is the CSDS dance team program, but also to the incredible coach/choreographer that they had in Miss Lauri who clearly knew that if she held the standards high for this young group they would achieve them!

And so, as we left the auditorium after they danced for the final time yesterday the energy was off the charts!  Their hard work was rewarded several hours later in the form of two more golds added to the trophy count, followed by the news that they placed first overall in their age group for their jazz dance (Better When I'm Dancin')! What an absolutely fabulous way to end their first year on the dance team! xo

Wordless Wednesday:For Competition Weekend

Competition Weekend

I had all intentions of writing this blogpost yesterday, but the exhaustion from the weekend hit us all much harder than I was expecting and it really caught up to us yesterday.

If you are on Facebook chances are you have seen these pictures already. And for that I apologize. If not, you're in for a real treat! It was such an amazing weekend and I am glad to have them all here (in addition to on Facebook) so that one day, when we finally print this blog in book form they'll be in there too.

It was such a truly amazing weekend! The snow that began on Friday turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. When we returned from dinner that night we learned that the competition would be delayed by six hours on Saturday. So instead of having to have the girls to the school where it was taking place at 7:00am we now had to wait until 2:00pm. Sure, it was nice to get to sleep in, but in the end it made for a really long day for all the girls (especially the youngest among us).

Being a dance team family this year has been such a gift. Ever since the girls started dancing at Center Stage we knew that we were in a very special place. And the awareness of how truly incredible Center Stage is increases exponentially when your family becomes a dance team family. The help, support, encouragement, wisdom and genuine caring of all the dancers, teachers and parents is second to none. I just loved how we all came together throughout the weekend. There were people helping to do various dancers buns (many thanks to Nicole!), make-up, fake eye lashes (the girls on the mini team did not wear them), or steaming costumes, And that was just back at the hotel! Once we were at the competition site there was more of the same. Miss Lauri repairing costumes. Miss Cindy straightening hair. People touching up make-up on various dancers. Being a part of the dance team really is like being a part of a very large family, and what a gift that is!

Each time a dancer from Center Stage took the stage this weekend you knew exactly where we all were sitting thanks to the huge amount of cheers that occurred. When the mini team took to the stage for the very first time you could hear the older dance team girls and parents shouting things like "Go minis!" and "You've got this!"  As soon as the girls finished their dance us moms made a run for the changing area to greet them and get them ready for their jazz dance. As we arrived the other moms and dancers told us how wonderfully they thought the girls did, and then when the girls arrived there was more clapping and cheering! Costumes and tights and their hairstyle were changed, make-up was touched up and off they went for their second performance! It was a flurry of activity and we mini team moms were impressed that we pulled it off pretty easily!

Once their second dance was completed (and more pictures were taken) they got changed into their warm-ups, had some snacks and spent some time hanging out as a team. They came in and watched the other dancers and joined in the cheering on of each girl as she took to the stage.

Finally, it was awards time. They gathered all the dancers on the stage and we waited to hear how each group did. This was very fast paced and took a little bit to figure out how it all worked. In the end I can tell you that Center Stage did really well (I have no idea on the final trophy count) and I am thrilled to share that the mini team brought home two elite golds! Not bad for a first competition if I do say so!

We returned home Sunday super tired but so very happy and so very proud! Grace cannot wait for the end of the month when she gets to do it all over again (and, after seeing all this, Emma is even more excitedly looking forward to auditioning for the team this summer than she already was)!Thank you, friends, for welcoming us all so warmly to the club, and thank you Lauri, Cindy and Michael for your beautiful choreography and your wonderful dedication to all our daughters! We are so blessed and very grateful to have you three at the helm and to get to be a part of this wonderful Center Stage Dance Team Family! xo