We get so many more opportunities to watch and share Fenya's vocal performances compared to Glory's Irish dancing, so I was extremely grateful that all three of us could be at the Festival of Trees this afternoon to see her dancing with Scoil Rince Mahoney.
Her teacher, Laurie, opened her own studio last summer, and not sharing the space with so many other groups means she can train more dancers, schedule extra rehearsals for events such as this, and has more students than at any point I can remember, and Glory has been dancing with her since she was 5 years old.
I prefer the hard shoe routines, but the Gaelic lilt of the soft shoe routines, the skipping, the joined hands; they have a resonance that speaks to somewhere deep in my soul.
More affecting even than that are the realizations, sometimes surprising, sometimes expected, that my littlest girl is on the cusp of becoming a young lady. Watching her on stage in her little black dress, with the poise and composure of long hours of practice, it is possible to look past the child she is now to see the tremendous young woman she is destined to become.
Rather than grieve for innocence lost though, it's far better to revel in a childhood full of fond memories, both of performances given, and experiences shared with family. After their set, we spent about an hour visiting the Festival's displays, seeing a Bag End made of gingerbread,
...a tubular Christmas tree...
...a small tree bade of repurposed books...
...an intriguing framing idea within a tree...
...a brilliantly embossed cake...
... and most of our favourite Muppets, rendered in gingerbread.
Lots to see at the Festival of Trees, but none of the decorations nor treats were even close to being my favourite thing!
.JPG)
UPDATED Dec 1st: Apparently the embedded videos are not showing up on some platforms (including my own iPad!), so here are links to the two videos, one for the soft shoe and one for the hard.
No comments:
Post a Comment