The Day We Learned About Wardrobe Malfunctions

After two great rehearsals, the girls were excited when it was finally time for their performance.  This year’s show was loosely based on Shel Silverstein’s story, “The Giving Tree.”

For three years, Brooke has longed to join Katelyn in the dancer’s waiting room and it was finally time.  They got to color and hang out with friends and then wait and wait and wait.  Since Katelyn was in multiple numbers, she didn’t have as much down time.  But Brooke’s number was near the beginning so she had a lot of time to wait with idle four year old hands.

Just before it was time for me to head to my seat, I noticed that one of Brooke’s straps looked dangerously loose.  I panicked at the thought of what could have been a disaster on stage and then happily pinned things together so that we wouldn’t need to worry about it coming loose.  Thank goodness Brooke didn’t go all Janet Jackson on us during her number.

The bunnies were adorable and even nibbled on their carrots during their number.

The students in the classroom danced beautifully with their “teachers.”

And the interludes turned out great.  The best part of the show was that you could tell they both had a good time.

After their numbers, Kyle left to get Emily from the friend that was watching her so he could be back in time for their bows.  When he arrived, he went in to check on the girls and sent me a text describing what he had found.  I don’t remember exactly how he worded it, but it was something to the effect that “Brooke had blown out a shoe.”  I was confused, worried and unclear on what that meant.  How could a little bunny blow out a dance shoe?

I wish you could see it in the picture of the bunnies doing their bows, but Brooke emerged on stage with what looked like a giant flipper.  Her ballet slipper was on, but the toe was no longer cinched in place with a nice suede sole; instead it fanned out and flapped in the breeze.  It was really funny and weird and mildly suspicious.

After the show we found our ballerinas.  The first discovery was that Janet Brooke, had popped the seam and safety pin on her strap and it was literally hanging on by one very frayed thread.

And then there was the mysterious flipper slipper.  It was funny and I just attributed it to them being hand-me-down ballet shoes. 

We also discovered that the red sequined dress that we borrowed from my dear friend Monika’s daughter (for Katelyn’s interlude numbers) was falling apart before our very eyes.  It was Jade’s newest costume but she let Katelyn borrow it anyway because she knew she would be careful with it.  And she was; but unfortunately, those sequins had an evacuation plan off of that dress and they succeeded.  I didn’t get any pictures of this mishap because I was dying a little inside each time a sequin jumped ship. Thank goodness we were able to order Jade a new one, but I almost had a coronary until I found out one was available.

After all the costume drama, we happily congratulated our dancers and then it was time for everybody’s favorite part of the night…

… ice cream at Dairy Queen!!!!

It was such a fun night and they did a great job.  We also loved having Gram and Pop there to celebrate with us.

*** I still wondered how a ballet shoe that was in almost perfect condition could do that.  Upon further inspection of the slipper, I discovered that the stitching wasn’t split or even frayed, it just looked like it came right out in one long piece and then stopped abruptly. Then, I got back the ballet slippers that we let one of Brooke’s bunny friends borrow for the show.  I found that the toe of one of those shoes was also “coming apart” in the same tidy way.  That is when I realized that a bored little four year old bunny must have found a little string on the bottom of her slipper, gave it a tug and another and another.  Since it was so fun, she showed her friend, who did the same thing.  On the bright side, this means that Emily will at least get to pick out a new pair of ballet shoes a couple of times.