happy feet

Saturday was national tap dance day which brings me to this post about my latest tap dream come true. A few weeks ago was Jodi's Dance Academy dance recital themed Dancing Down Memory Lane. This theme was in honor of the studio's ten year anniversary. The entire show was awesome! I was fortunate enough to have danced not once but twice in the show. One dance was an alumni version of Apologize, a dance I did in high school. It was so fun to be able to relearn the choreography and to perform on stage with my friends and Miss Jodi. The other dance I did was actually a surprise to everyone except the dancers who did it with me :) Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved dancing with my mom. Having her as my dance teacher has been really special for us. I have especially loved following in her footsteps of being a good tap dancer. Since she has taught me tap my entire life, its just extra fun for me to be able to come home and dance with her in general but I especially love tapping with her.

Nowww, I will tell this story as if I were the lady sitting behind my Nana (my mom's mom). 

We were just enjoying the show and the program said nothing about what was going to happen next. On comes an upbeat song and out comes Chelan McMurray tapping her life away on the stage. Her grandmother, sitting in front of us, starts excitedly hitting Chelan's father, grabbing his attention and showing her surprise. Chelan starts to tap over to one side of the stage and then reaches into the wings and out comes the next McMurray sister, Matlin, joining right in and never missing a beat. At this point, the grandmother starts looking at the seat next to her where Matlin had been sitting just minutes before wondering how this could be happening. These two girls tap on over to the other side of the stage and pull their little sister, Camrie, out of the wings to join them. By now the grandmother is grinning ear to ear, just so pleased with this surprise number. The three girls continue to tap (advanced level steps might I add. I add this because Matlin wasn't even in dance this last year but had no problems learning the steps quickly, and Camrie, who is only 13 picked up the steps like a champ. They are so darn talented!) and right when the music gets climactic, their mother sneaks on stage behind them and the crowd goes crazy. Cheryl's mother is pretty much hysterical while her husband, Ron, is searching for the tissues. They continue to dance and their tap teacher/mom joins in perfectly 'in the pocket' while the Nana is smiling proudly through her tears. 

Me again. We each had a small solo part to show our skills and Matlin's was by far the crowd favourite. She did her classic freestyle Matlin dancing and everyone went wild. Many people came up to us after the show to tell us how much they loved this number and it was so thoughtful of them. While I was on stage with my mom and sisters I almost started crying because it was such a special moment for me to be dancing with the girls I love and look up to so much. I am so happy to be able to share something so unique with my family.