Smashed Together Art = SMART

One of my beefs with the end of school is all the concerts and events splattered throughout the month. It makes it impossible to do other things, because every time you turn around, there is another school function you have to attend. Consequently, May is one of my least favorite months. (Sorry May, nothing personal.)

So with kids at the elementary in choir, orchestra, and ballroom, I was dreading it a little. Not to mention N.O.V.A. and Sixth grade graduation. But the arts department got smart and planned an assembly that covered them all. YAY!! The only thing that could have made it better was having a performance at night so parents who work could attend, but I was fine attending during the day and Tyler was also able to come. And I think one of the purposes was advertising for next year. They want kids to see these programs and sign up.

Ivory was a stress case. She was in almost every single performance, since she does choir, orchestra, AND ballroom. They had things spaced out nicely. In between orchestra set up and removal, the choir would sing. Ivory was so funny running around but she made it everywhere she needed to be.

We took some pictures and some video. Here is the choir onstage. You can easily pick out the girls who are dressed up to dance later.

Here is a blurry closeup. Can you find Daisy and Ivory in yellow? They both have contacts in, so you can't use glasses to cheat.

Here is one of the choir songs. I believe it is an African song.

Then orchestra was up. Somehow I didn't take any pictures of Ivory, but they did a good job. I think Ivory is glad to be done with orchestra. She is not terribly fond of her teacher. It is hard to know who to side with. Ivory says she gets sent out in the hall all the time. But I do know she can be a bit chatty. However, if she asks a question, she sometimes gets in trouble because the teacher says she should have been listening before. Yikes. I have never gotten involved and I'm just happy they won't be working together next year.

Ballroom was the most fun to watch of course. First up was the Beauty and the Beast waltz. It was so cute to watch. I love that these young kids know these dances.

More singing with the choir in between. I didn't put all the choir songs on here, but they did an amazing job.

The next ballroom dance doesn't feature any of my kids, but I loved it so much. This is the dance that I think would sell kids on doing ballroom. Watch Henry on the far right when they do the hand roll. Classic.

And of course, who could do a dance number without adding the hottest music in showbiz right now? Can you guess from the pictures? I'm sure you can.

Our video glitched on this one, but I got a snippet from another mom. It was one of my favorite parts anyway. There aren't enough guys to go around, so the girls split for the other songs, but they all danced this one. They just had half the girls dance the beginning and half dance the end. But in the middle, they switched the girls in a creative way. I really liked it.

This was such a fun year for ballroom.

I also think that Ivory and Daisy really liked choir. Most of these programs are for fourth grade and up, so Pearl still has to wait another year. But I think Daisy will be participating again.

Daisy ran off after, and I got one shot of Ivory. She made it through all the costume changes, and choir songs, and moving instruments. Her smile looks a little exhausted, but she can pat herself on the back.