I think my girls love wearing their ballet costumes above all other things! Besides getting to wear make-up for the performance, I suppose. They do love that too. Things were weird with the dress rehearsals this year (something about the middle school where they perform charging more money…it's crazy how much it costs to rent out a [sorry to say it, but rather dim and mediocre] school auditorium!) so it seemed like they never had their costumes on in the daylight. And there was never any time! We were always rushing everywhere…rushing to get to class on time, rushing home to make dinner, rushing to Young Women's and Activity Days, rushing from cross-country practice, rushing to pick up Malachi from work…it makes me tired to remember it.
I did get a few photos at one of the dress rehearsals, when they were taking pictures of Daisy for the program.
I love this view of Daisy and her teachers looking over the photos, surrounded by racks of costumes…they were telling her things like, "Okay, lift your leg a little straighter and curve your arms a little more!" It took forever to get the shot exactly how they wanted it! (Meanwhile I was getting more and more annoyed about the dinner getting cold at home!)
They did get some good shots, though! :)
Two Claras
Junie didn't need ringlets this year, which was a little sad, but also a relief as I was putting the curlers in for Daisy and Goldie at 11 pm on the night before the performance :)
All curly and ready to go!
Pre-show walk-through
And here are the lovely girls, at last, in their lovely costumes. We took these pictures in great haste, at all kinds of Unauthorized Times, in Unauthorized Areas of the school, and we aren't even sorry! (Also, I swear the lighting inside this junior high is the worst and most sickly lighting on the face of the earth. We tried to go outside when we could, but eventually it got too dark!)
Goldie the Soldier Captain
Goldie the Snow Sprite
Junie the Jester. She did this solo part last year too because she's so good at cartwheels and handstands and walkovers. It's so fun to watch!
(I just wanted to see what her face looked like while she was upside-down. Still smiling!)
Junie had SIX PARTS in the Nutcracker this year. I asked her, "Don't you get them mixed up?" and she said "No, my feet just know what to do." She was just amazing! The dance for this costume, the Russian dance, was especially fun because it's danced by a boy and two girls, and Junie and Daisy were the two girls. But, sadly, Daisy had a fall during the first performance (I told that story in this post) so I didn't get a picture of the two of them both in their costumes.
Instead, here is Junie with Ivy, the girls' friend who danced Russian in the other cast. Pretend she's Daisy!
Arabian. This was probably my favorite of Junie's dances. I love the music for it!
Maid. Not much dancing in this part, but Junie loved her costume!
Oh, I do have one picture of Daisy in her costume too. From the first cast.
Daisy, as I know I've mentioned, was Clara this year. (She also did several other corps parts in the other cast.) She got to have three costumes as Clara, which she was so happy about! Here's her nightgown. These pictures were after she had hurt her foot and she was just experimenting before the evening performance with how much she could do on pointe, and I can see the strain on her face even though she's smiling. She powered through, though!
I told her to show me what face she makes when the mice come in :)
We snatched the Nutcracker from the stage for a few pictures :) This is the party dress for Clara.
The party scene participants. Like last year, Teddy got pulled in to help—even though he's not in ballet—since there are never enough boys. He thinks it's so fun to gallop around on the stick horses!
And here's Daisy in between acts, in her Second Act Clara dress. So pretty!
They put a cape and crown on her onstage, so she has those at the end.
Daisy and Junie were also in Snow Corps and Flower Corps together for one of the casts. They wanted a picture in their costumes (these are Snow; we didn't manage to get Flower!) even though Daisy's foot was too swollen to put on pointe shoes at the moment!
These are how the Flower Costumes looked
And here's Daisy backstage in the middle of a costume change! Keeping a tan leotard on beneath everything definitely simplifies matters! :)
I just loved watching these dancers in the performance! They're getting so good! And I'm grateful they get to have the fun experience of doing it together.
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