Applegate Dance Company ~ Disney Dances

One of the treasures we've found here in California is Applegate Dance Studio in Davis. The girls have loved their creative movement and ballet classes this year and last week was the big show. We were amazed and once again grateful to have found such a wonderful opportunity for our girls to take part in such a strong dance program.

Brynn played the part of Little Tinkerbell this year in the first half of the program, "Disney Dances" and did a beautiful job. Each night when the curtain opened our insides squealed to see her perfectly still little sillouette sitting there. She choreographed her little solo part and actually changed it every night, it was pretty cute. Every single time I saw her perform whether in rehearsals or during the show, I got teary eyed, she was so darling and she LOVES every minute of it. brynn is a fairly reserved little girl, but she had no reservations while on stage. On the way to the first performance I asked her if she was nervous, she looked at me with her lipstick smile and said with enthusiasm, "No, I'm just so excited!" We received many compliments about the way she carried herself throughout the duration of the shows. She was such a little sweetheart and was a delight to watch perform!

She performed 5 different times and we all attended each performance. The show was amazing and very entertaining. We had originally planned to get a babysitter for Aaron for a few of the shows, but after he sat perfectly through the first show we decided to take him every night. He did awesome! We even stayed a couple of times to watch the second half of the show, Stravinsky's one act ballet "The Firebird," performed by the studio's company. Once again he was completely mesmerized by the dancers for the whole 2 1/2 hours (and so were the rest of us). The prince was played by a guest performer from the Sacramento Ballet who was amazing, and the evil villain played by a contourtionist training with the San Francisco Circus Center....very creepy movements. They were both amazingto watch and of course the ballerinas were stunning and very talented. We loved every minute and we are so sad that this year's show is over, but can't wait for next year's show.

"Tink"
Part of the cast in the green room listening to the motivational speech on opening night!
Little Tinkerbell and Little Jasmine
Brynn as Little Tinkerbell and Tinkerbell played by Tara Alemi. Tara was so sweet with Brynn and is an amazing dancer. She's extremely talented, not only is she a beautiful dancer, but she sings, plays the piano, acts, and is a great student. She just graduated from Davis High School and will be attending a local university in the fall.
The dancers were asked to wear costume cover-ups to keep their costumes top-secret until the start of the show.
We were so happy that Grandma and Grandpa could come to support Brynn. We loved every minute they were here.

Grandpa bought Brynn a rose for the last show and then realized he better get one for Abby too. When he walked in with another rose, she looked at him with wide eyes and dropped jaw, and then said with a sad, sulky face, "But I wasn't in a play..." Grandpa then explained the rose wasn't because she was in a play, but because he loved her, and then all was well.

Joseph was extremely proud of his girls andwas very impressed with the show. He delights in exposing the kids to fine culture and this weekend did not disappoint.

After the last performance, we went home and shared a yummy dinner and then headed for a walk/hike at the Davis Arboretum. We had lots of fun feeding the ducks. The kids were terrified (as usual) of the ducks and ran away while Joseph and I throw huge chunks of bread at each other and my parents, trying to get the ducks to swarm the other person. It's funny unless you are the first to run out of bread...then you are the one left with all the swarming hungry ducks!

Wonderful memory making weekend.