The Big Night

Well, after months of rigorous training, Katie finally faced her big Ballet Recital tonight. Expecting Katie to be nervous, Jen and I were pumping Katie with a lot of, "You are going to be great!" type of reinforcement. I quickly realized that Katie was not nervous at all, literally zero performance anxiety.

Me: "Katie, you are so beautiful, you are going to be great tonight!"

Katie: "I know daddy, just like I was last night!" (Referring to her dress rehearsal)

Me: "Are you nervous at all?"

Katie: "No" (The way she looked at me when she said this, was kinda like a look of "What are you talking about?")

She was simply a knockout. She did awesome and was a stand-out with some classic Katie moves and moments. Some people watch her and think she is hamming it up. But if you know Katie, you realize that she is not performing with the audience in mind at all, she is totally in the moment, she is pretending she is a princess, imagining that she is a star ballerina...

At the end, all the performers come out on stage and bow. Katie's class all stood in a row and the girls were supposed to bow together. Katie decides instead that she is going to do this long fancy lingering curtsy, that leaves her kneeling center stage with this gigantic smile. It was priceless. Something tells me this is the first of many performances I am going to be attending.