Spring Dance Showcase and Auditions

Big week for the bloggy-blog! Lots of activities happened over the weekend, and of course today is Brailey Shaye's 14th birthday. What can we say, except that the last few weeks of school are always exciting and busy days?!
On Friday evening, we attended Brailey's Dance Showcase for her Middle School Dance Team and then the auditions for placement with the Sheldon Colleens. First, she had her last dances with the Middle School Team. She was amazing, as always! It is such a joy to see her perform. She lights up the stage! (Disclaimer - my blog, thus my mom bragging rights.) They danced to Cake By the Ocean by DNCE and No by Meghan Trainor. Both dances were darling! And I love those sparkly shirts!Nice kick, Brailey! She is the third from the left.
And then, the auditions to see team placement for the high school team, the Sheldon Colleens. We don't know much about the technique side of dance, but we were incredibly proud of Brailey - she is our shining star! The dancers were broken into groups of three of four, and performed routines they had learned from tryouts. They have been practicing these dances for the past month. And in other big news, Brailey walked from her middle school to the high school for the first time, once with her teammates Elleot and Bella, and then the last time, all by herself! It was nerve-wracking for me, but she was ready to spread her wings a little and loved walking. Back to the auditions, though, once each group performed, they were brought to the front of the stage and scored by the judges. Each girl had a number on her shirt.
Brailey still has a lot to learn when it comes to dance. She is behind in technique and although she has improved her flexibility dramatically over the past nine months, she has a lot more to master. Unfortunately, both Brady and I are very unflexible, so she isn't one of those naturally flexible beings. If only we had known her heart was in dance all those years ago, she would be ahead of the game. But the good news is, she is smart and she has the work ethic to get herself where she needs to be. It is amazing she has come so far in less than a year! And like anything else, if she works hard and goes the extra mile, she will achieve all her goals and make her dreams come true. It is going to be so fun to watch her perform this year!