vandopoly: a memorable dance season

Showtime 2018!

Falling behind on posts already! 😩

This past weekend, Aves had her end of year dance recital. Every year Boswell Dance Academy puts on a pretty big production! This year, they decided that the finale would incorporate the Disney dance performance. Aves usually isn't in the finale (reserved for dance grads and competitive dancers). But since she was in Disney Dance, she was able to take part. There were 2 shows and as I watched the finale of the second show last night, I felt a bit nostalgic and weepy for all the time that went into Disney dance (perfect segue into a post that I've been meaning to post for the past month!)...

Toward the end of May, we headed to Cali with Aves' dance group so they could perform at Disneyland! When the opportunity came up last summer, Aves said she wanted to do it in a heartbeat. I was excited for her - what an opportunity to dance at Disneyland!

It was a tough 8 months working hard to get the production ready. The practices started last October as 2 hours every other week, but by the beginning of this year, they ramped up to 3 hour practices. As the date got closer, they added extra practices, dress rehearsals and it all generally took time to get everything ready to go. The girls, the dance coaches and parents all worked hard to make sure we were ready and organized for Disney.

Well, the hard work paid off. I'm pretty sure everyone in our group of ??? would agree! (There were just under 45 dancers. So, with family and friends, our BDA group was pretty big!)

BDA Disney Dance Group outside the Hollywood Studios backlot

Early in the year, I canvassed family and friends to see if anyone wanted to join us at Disney for a May long-weekend vacay. So, in addition to our BDA dance group, our friends PLD decided to come along, too!

It was truly a blast going to Universal and Disney with friends. It helped that PLD were pretty laid back and were willing to follow the itinerary put together by the BDA parents group!

I loved seeing Aves in this moment, too. There was a mix of excitement and anxiety that I think she handled amazingly! I'm not going to say much about it because I have 150+ photos that captured our memories. But I wanted to share some photos here that showcase Aves, along with the dance group. I hope she will remember this for years to come! (P.S. The last upload here is the video of the performance that Brian captured. He tirelessly held his phone stable for 22 minutes while trying to make sure he could watch the performance IRL, too! Please watch his labour of love! 😘)