The dance from Saturday afternoon is posted here.  The following is from the dress rehearsal Thursday:

They practiced for weeks, Thursday mornings with Ms. Sherese or Ms. Alix (and sometimes both).

I sat back and took notes so we could practice a bit during the week.  C&D reminded me that they wanted flowers at the end of their performance, preferably thrown onto the stage like the Andre Rieu and Celtic Woman concerts they’ve seen on PBS.  We couldn’t do that, of course; C&D would have to settle for receiving flowers in the Hammon Hall lobby.

Thursday night, C&D were ready for the dress rehearsal.

C&D were number six in the lineup.  Soon enough, it was their turn.

By accident C&D skipped the first part and performed the second half twice.  They did a good job of recovering, however (“Keep going!” we had coached them before).  After a second run-through–this was a rehearsal, after all–they got it pretty right (shown in the video above).

The other dancers rehearsed, too.

It was just about bedtime when we got home, but Carmen’s eyes were shining.  She wanted to be on the stage again!  David was quiet, thinking about everything he had seen and heard.

Saturday was the big day.  C&D went to bed late and woke up early.  They were excited!  I was glad  I had bought some undereye concealer a couple of days before.  David reminded me I needed to get flowers.  After lunch I left C&D with the other dancers to warm up while I worked on the sock monkey that has kept me occupied during dance class all semester.  My mom arrived with flowers, and Matt arrived with even more.  We were ready.

And then, it was time. When C&D danced out onto the stage the audience let out a collective “awwww.”  They did look awfully cute.  C&D remembered all their steps and at the end of the recital received their flowers joyously.