Rising Stars

Today was Ava's main competition day. This afternoon and evening her group, the Rising Stars, performed their ballet, tap, and jazz routines. I'm not going to lie, they started off a little rough. A few of the girls arrived a little late to the dressing room (our studio asks the dancers to be dressed and ready to go at least an hour before they are scheduled to perform), so they were a little stressed and hurried to begin with. Ballet was their first dance, and it has given the group the most trouble all year. They were not feeling their best afterward, but did a little better in tap and were feeling good going into jazz.

The jazz routine had me the most worried. In the original routine, Ava's friend Riley had a little spotlight part in which she did a "scoop," which is this move where she clasps her hands under one of her legs and lifts said leg up next to her ear. Oh, and holds it there for a few seconds. Riley didn't go come to Atlantic City for nationals, so Ava had been chosen to take Riley's place for this part. This wouldn't be a problem, except that every time I asked Ava to practice at our house she could barely get her leg extended before falling to the ground. While I know the focus is to have fun and do their best, I also didn't want Ava letting her group down by not being able to do what was asked of her.

Ever the professional, as soon as Ava's jazz costume was on she began to practice her scoop. Suddenly she was holding her position for HOURS. Okay, not that long obviously, but all of her wobbles were gone and she was rock solid in her move. Onstage, she did come out of it a hair early but improved some little hip-shaking sassy nonsense that looked like it was intended to be there. Not a sliver of nerves could be found anywhere in Ava's body language; that girl was up there to have fun and she did just that.

By the end of the night the Rising Stars came away with High Golds for all three routines (not the highest medal but not the lowest either), a costume award for their tap routine - gotta love Dorothy's ruby red tap shoes - and the fifth highest score overall in their age category for their jazz routine. These girls really are rising stars who have grown so much this year. I adore this little group and can't wait to see how they grow even more in the years to come.