You need to know about this thing they call DANCE CONCERT. It's SOTA's annual dance showcase for the 100+ dance majors in the school. Typically you have instructor pieces and student choreographed pieces. The older students begin showing off their choreography to the dance faculty in october. If their piece gets accepted then they have tryouts along side the faculty. So Grace has to go to the tryouts last fall if she wants to be in the showcase...she goes out for 4 pieces...as a 7th grader she can only be in 2 max. She does very well and lands 2 student pieces. The students that pick can pick anyone in the school..yes many pick friends but they want their dances to look good so they have to get good kids as well. I guess it is a pretty big deal for a 7th grader to get in so kudos to Gracie for going for it and getting in. The show was three nights...it was awesome. The teacher pieces were usually a little bit better but the student pieces were really good too! These are some of the best dancers in the county I imagine...the guys looked like pros with their barrel turns...the dances ranged from ballet to hiphop and the mix is quite amusing.
so here we are at Friendly's for a little post Dance Concert fun...the 4 away from me are the 7th grade dancers...Maya next to Grace is also in her classes and lives a few doors down from her on Yarmouth and across from her in the cowhat is McKenna and next to her Jannalis?...I think .
This is one of Grace's Choreographers and 10th grader Laura Rich... she is stretching Grace out and doing her hair...as a choreographer you apparently wear a lot of hats. These pics are from East high last weekend where they did some demo dances as part of the fitness/health fair. 
Here are a few of the girls going over some last minute changes. I think the thing I like about all of this is the caring of the younger students by the older ones...truly an amazing environment to thrive in...learning from peers/friends...support and friendship within a larger school...these kids genuinely love each other an it really doesn't get better than that.
I have more pics I'll add tomorrow.
I was able to convince SWBR to buy an ad in the program since one of the partners had/has 5 daughters in or go through SOTA...the screen/projection system is brand new and will become very handy when they figure out what they can do with it
Here is Gracie and me after the Saturday show...I always get weepy when I see her after a performance but I told her she nailed her triple spin in the first piece and she said "I know ...I was like yes" (insert fist pump here). It's good to watch closely so you can compliment appropriately...
No show is complete until you have had pictures in the lobby...here's Adiene, Grace, Meredith and Maya...Mereda, as she seems to be known, is the only non-dancer...apparently she is a theater - tech major (EEEEEWWWWWE). I told her I was good with that and we have bonded on a theater tech level. imagine these 4 with cow hat girl and one more dancer at the Strathallen for Grace's 13th....wahoo...Actually they are really nice kids and I actually had fun too...I imagine we will have many SOTA posts to come.
