Days with the Dorans

Ali's Dance Master's schedule was AWESOME. She didn't have to be there until 10am and awards were at 2:30! It's nice having her pieces all in the same age-group this year. They were awesome! All platinums and one high gold. They also took a first and second overall. To be fair they were in a different level than the other studios. We were the only studio with intensive numbers. They were beautiful though. I love watching Al perform. Nana was able to come and watch some too! Not being in any evening pieces meant that Al could go eat and we could go home to rest up for the Cosman's St. Patty's party! What a full day we had!!

This year Dance Masters was different than those in the past~ mostly because Al wasn't with her friends which meant I wasn't with MY friends. Since Al's classes fell (early) on Sunday, Jeff said he'd come with and keep me company. I was glad he drove since white stuff was falling from the sky (yuck!). Al opted not to do auditions since she would have been competing against all the older dancers. The cool thing is she won a scholarship last year so this was FREE for us! Whoop whooop! (Dance and FREE are not usually in the same sentence.) Al's good friends all had classes the day before (they dance with the Juniors while Al was with teens). She of course knows the girls she danced classes with but they're all soloists and pretty chummy. When we dropped Al off only one girl said hi to her and I thought- she's not going to like this as much as she usually does...  (Al loves to dance but she also loves her friendships). But I knew she'd be busy...

We had a crazy snowstorm (that I didn't expect) overnight and while we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to DMM, we barely made it. Everyone was late though and we were just happy not to be one of the cars in a ditch! Al had to be there a little earlier than her buddy Amber so it was just the two of us driving. It was a long day and the girls had fun. Nana even was able to come and watch Al dance which was cool.  During Al's tap piece though she messed up... She stood up a little too early, caught herself and went back down. Her face wore a smile throughout the rest of the number but I could tell that she was devastated. Two numbers later she had another dance and did great. When she saw us after ,she burst into tears because she had messed up! I felt terrible for her! It was then that Landri (older dancer that Al loves) saw Al and came to her, scooped her into her arms and just kept telling her how awesome and amazing she was. Next Tyler came and did the same...

 We are old pros at DMM now! This year we not only drove with Amber and Julia, we roomed with them too. After 10 days in Nashville, 2 days in Lansing was nothing! What was new was that the girls auditioned for scholarships this year. I had to get Al a new black leotard for it since her old one was small. I love the lace back. Very pretty!  We spent two nights this year since the girls had to be up early to audition. They stretched in the room and then were down to stretch more with this great group of girls!  There were many who auditioned (this is just our studio pictured- quite a few girls from our studio alone!).  When I saw this sea of girls, I didn't even see Ali at first! Can you find her??  She's grown so much. Not just as a dancer but in her own skin. She would have never auditioned last year with her anxiety. While it still comes back here and there, she's learned to do things even while afraid because good things can happen!  Juli...

It was time for another Dance Competition!  This time it was the DMM and the girls did amazing! This was not only a competition but also a convention so they took classes as well! Al got another beloved "Star Dancer" pin (she lost one of her others but has decided to put the pins back on her coat anyway...). The teachers give the pins to dancers they see doing well (or something like that). Of course our dancers also like to have fun.  I thought it was funny when I took a picture of Am and Al sitting back to back (Amber had no idear Al was making these lovely faces...). Ali was selected to receive the awards for her tap number, "Sh'boom" so that was really cool.  For awards the girls always run to sit on the back left for whatever reason... My folks also came to watch her dance which was exciting (no Jeff because he was on soccer duty-as always- sending me text updates).  I don't remember my dad coming to my competitions when I was younger ...

 This year, Ali moved up in dance which meant she could have done an audition at DMM (Dance Masters of Michigan).  We opted not to because she's been having some difficulty with anxiety lately (about everything) and thought it would be easier to skip that. We still headed to Lansing overnight with Julia and Amber.  The girls started with classes that went from 1:30-7:30! The moms had a nice lunch and walked around a bit and then went back for a nap (my favorite).  We decided to get a pizza for our girls because they had a dance party that started at 8 for all the dancers.  We went back to the hotel to change and eat and then the girls were off to the party! It was fun to see all the new dancers this year.  Some of the girls seemed so little but then so were our girls just 4 years ago when we first started this stuff!  It's amazing how time will fly when you're having fun (or when you have kids).  The girls had a blast dancing. ...