Kate's Recital and Professional Dance Pictures

So at the end of the season, there was an optional performance opportunity with Kate's Dance Class at the Round Rock Family Night Christmas celebration. We totally jumped on it! It was a very nominal fee to just cover a cheap costume for the kids who wanted to perform. The theme for the Kinderdance group was Santa's Christmas musical. Kate's little Kindertots class was assigned "Jingle Bells". They practiced their dance every week starting in October until the performance mid-December. Basically, their routine consisted of skipping in a circle, then holding hands and walking in and out(Kate is directly to the right of the teacher in this shot) , and finally shaking jingle bells on their wrists in various positions. (Kate is the last one in the green on the right in the above and below picture) It was very cute and very basic for such little kiddos. This was good because it took them several classes to manage anything that looked close to skipping....lol Their costumes were super cute (but very short) so they had to add a red tutu underneath to cover little bums. Here is Kate before it was her turn to go on.
Unfortunately, it has been an unreasonably cold winter for Texas and that night it was bitter cold. Here she is before leaving home in front of our tree. It looked very festive! There was even talk of snow. I bundled Kate as best as I could under her little costume. I think she wore 2 or 3 pairs of thick cotton tights and 2 long sleeved shirts underneath her costume. I also had her wearing 2 coats and hood until it was almost time for her to perform. Her class went on first and she did wonderful! She didn't even stop for too long when another little girl stood on "her" piece of tape. (At rehearsal this made her stop and full on start crying and refuse to dance anymore) She was the very best skipper :) She was very happy to watch all of the other performances in spite of the weather (it even started drizzling for a bit) I felt so bad watching some of the other classes (who had much chillier costumes) because the little girls were just FREEZING. They were shivering and shaking and their little lips were turning blue. Some of them wouldn't dance at all. All in all it was pretty cute, and I am looking forward to a spring recital....INSIDE! :)
Also, we had her dance pictures done at JC Penny. We went a little hog wild since it was her first season in dance and she is so darling. Hope you enjoy them! We borrowed props from her dance class that they used in class and brought along some music for her to dance too. She LOVED it. I thought they turned out great. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! I love how her hair is flying in this poseThis one turned out beautiful and just reminded me of my princess Kate- who is in every way perfectly princess! And what is a photo session with Kate without pouting?
With her maracas! Dancing to Jack Be Nimble. Jump Jack Jump! Another beautiful action shot. Look at the flying hair and the twirling skirt! Dancing with ribbons. We used this shot on a fun poster for her room! Very cute full body shot of my tiny dancer. It took a whole season, but she got the butterfly legs down! Look at that classic ballet pose picture. Love it! Too bad you can't hear her saying "ewww stinky toes....pu!" (that was how the teacher got them to do the pose) or see her spray her feet with stink spray and do it again! Too cute!