Samantha hasn't done any formal dance classes since doing flamenco when she was younger. And while her school has a weekly dance class and she loves it, I was shocked when she wanted to join her friends in a hip hop class at Santa Barbara Dance Arts since she has chosen to do sports over anything else.
Unfortunately, the hip hop class was full but jazz was open and as a former dancer myself, I was more excited than Sam that it worked out this way. Plus jazz meant new shoes so that was helpful in softening the hip hop blow.
Making themselves right at home in the student store.
Lucky girls, they got the owner of the studio as their teacher, Alana.
And then about two weeks later we got a call that there was room in the hip hop class for Sam. So suddenly I was paying for two dance classes because she had already begun to love jazz and well, hip hop was the original plan. I was not sure how we were going to make soccer, piano, and soon to be basketball and volleyball along with two dance classes work. But I said yes. 🤷♀️
In December, the hip hop class had a performance at the studio.
Pre-show practice.
With their hip hop teacher, Britney.
December hip hop performance.
The winter/spring season of dance started up and Sam was not wanting to stop. Unfortunately, she had to move out of the classes with her friends because her sports schedule changed. What ended up happening was A LOT of driving back and forth to the dance studio from the soccer field including having to miss the first 20 minutes of jazz each week. Madeline, Sam's new jazz teacher, was fine with this as long as Sam kept up. And she did!
She also moved out of a tween class into a tween/teen class.
Sam got to be at the top of the pyramid in their performance routine. If you watch "Dance Moms" then you know what that is. 😂
I thought Sam's hip hop costume for the May recital was pretty bad.
Sam made it work but still, pretty bad.
Dress rehearsal.
Jazz outfits were much cuter!
Performance night!
Sam performed in two shows, one for hip hop and one for jazz.
The final bow.
Mesa Cafe with all that makeup. 🙈
Ready for show #2!
Our friend, Mia, is in SOOOO many dances. She's really good!
Night #2 with all that makeup at Los Arroyos. 🙈
I didn't buy the class photos but took a photo of the photos at the studio.
Obviously I didn't buy this one either. 😂
Here's some video I was able to sneak of some of Sam's classes.
And here's the dress rehearsal for hip hop and the actual show performance of jazz because I got a little adventurous and filmed during the show. SHHHHHHHHHHH! 😜
