The Journey

It has definitely been a journey...Emily has gone from dancing as a three year old...so cute so precious to participating in a story ballet with costume changes, professional looking hair dos, makeup and choreography as a 9 year old in the upper division...

But the Journey that I'm writing about is the story that her Ballet Director wrote and choreographed as part of her interest in a mother/daughter relationship and research on her great grandmother being an immigrant from Sweden.  She wrote "The Journey" to showcase what was the largest number of single Swedish Immigrants to the US in the 1890's...the prayers and love and sorrow that their mother's had for them and the dangers and mystery that was ahead of them.  The story had ups and downs, love, sorrow, joy, and fear.  There were villains and make believe all mixed in to the 2 hour story ballet...and my Emily got to be a part of it!  It was an amazing story of redemption and one that he director wanted to bless those that watched.  She, herself, is a believer in Jesus and wanted to show with the ballet that He is the one that was with the immigrants along the way...

Years before, the younger girls each would go out and do an individual dance, class by class..but this year the Director decided to intertwine all the classes...younger and older girls in the Upper Division in one story...9-18 years old.  Even the teachers had parts and Mrs. Stuyverson danced a small part...It was amazing and such an undertaking...

The younger girls loved being a part of something big and having a chance to dance with the older girls.  The older girls that do Pointe were the main characters and danced throughout the story and then the younger girls all had different parts, even acting out parts and showcasing ballet, tap, and jazz.  I cannot believe how they got it to all come together...We were all so proud and so stunned...truly it was better than I ever imagined!  Emily had three main "songs" that she danced to and then was on and off the stage doing small cameos as an Irish child and fairy princess.  The Irish music was my favorite and Emily got to be right in the front during the tap and Jazz performance which was neat...She smiled so big and seemed really confident.  There teachers were not standing in front of them and they had no help in remembering where to be or what to do...this was a first!  It was definitely SHOWTIME! 

Mommy and Daddy were so proud!  The long hours of practice and hard work, driving, and cost was worth it!  Emily had many fans come to support her...Nanny and Papa, Cousins Natalie and Loren, Pop Pop and Nee Naw, Granny and Granddad, friends, and of course brother!

She has the most wonderful ballerina friends who have been dancing together since they were 3 and 4 years old!

John said to me on the phone from work last night after everything was over, "I was just calling to say hey, it is one of those days where I don't want to be here (work).  I'm just so proud of my family, I want to be there with you guys!"  It was a great weekend!