Spirit of the Dance

Over the weekend I went to watch my neice perform in her dance studio's end of year show.

Now 13, she has been dancing since a very early age and still enjoys every single second of it. Dancing and performing seem to run through every single bone of her body. I have not watched her perform for at least 3 years, maybe a little longer, and what I saw at the weekend was absolutely amazing. She has progressed so much since I last watched her, she has transformed herself from a talented infant with an occasional awkward move into an elegant young dancer.

The show consisted of about 30 dances in all, and I'm sure that all the youngsters must have been practising for several weeks. The performances were very polished and the choreography, very professional. The music was taken from a wide range of musicals ranging from Joseph to Carousel. 3 of the youngsters also performed solo songs.


The young lad of 14 who sang Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat was amazing, and really worked the audience too.


The dances were wide ranging too, from Jazz to modern ...














... and everything in between including tap.


This dance was to the theme music for An Officer and a Gentleman


Each dance meant another costume, all of which were beautiful too, and some of the performers have obviously already mastered the art of a quick change and were back out for consecutive dances.













One of the performances I enjoyed most was a take on the Michael Jackson, Thriller video. The stage was pitch black, the smoke machine in full flow and all of a sudden the dancers came from the back of the hall, weaving their way around the audience making ghostly sounds and faces. Once on stage, as they shook theirs heads from one side to the other, 'dust' filled the air. The dance was very different to the others and it was absolutely terrific.







Finally, I could not leave this post without showing you this little double act. How cute are they? They were both little stars the whole afternoon.