World Class Talent Entertainment - 2019

Wow! Has it really been five days since I have posted? Life has been CRAZY, with a capital C.  I just couldn't spend time at my computer last week. There were far too many pressing things happening, like... Valentine's Day, classroom parties, basketball games, basketball practices, dance practices, and a dance competition just to name a few....

The day arrived: competition day! This was the first time that Lilah has ever competed in dance.  I swore I would never do this and as "they say", "Never say never!" Lilah has been practicing since July. At first, Lilah was scheduled to be in a group hiphop dance, a group  jazz dance, called "SuperGroup" (which included 90% of the dance competitors, at Divine Dance Studio, ages ranging from 9-18), and a duo. So initially, three dances total, however the duo wound up being cancelled and that left us only committed to two dances this competition year. I think having a few more dances would have been perfectly fine, but sine this is our first year, I desired for our experience to be low key, so we could ease our way into the entire milestone. 

Here, Lilah applies Blu-Red LipSense.

Lilah and I took it pretty slow the morning of the competition. She bathed, I straightened her hair, and then it was time for makeup. I am so thankful that I sell makeup that lasts ALL DAY because applying makeup to her is, well, NOT FUN! She is so dramatic. Haha. Her eyes water, apparently I "hurt" her during makeup application, and on this particular day, I was curling her eyelashes (for the first time ever) and she panicked and PULLED AWAY when I had the wand pinched. UGH.  I almost puked at the sight of 20+ eyelashes that were pulled out of her eyes because of her knee jerk reaction.

Off to the Berglund Center, we went!!! This competition was LOCAL! It was put on by World Class Talent Experience.  

Lilah's FIRST dance was performed to J.J. Fad's SuperSonic.  It was a hiphop dance obviously and it was PHENOMENALLY performed. The energy and facial expressions were on POINT. The audience was REALLLLLY into it too.  I wish I could share the video, but I wasn't ALLOWED to take one.  This is the HARDEST PART about being a mom of a dance competitor.  :/ I love to document EVERYTHING and sadly... you can't show anyone's dances UNTIL after Nationals to avoid your competitors stealing your routine or trying to rise above it, I guess. I am counting down the days until JULY comes and I can share.  In the meantime, ENJOY the photos.  

Sadly, the boys and Darren could NOT join us AT ALL because they had 9 basketball games amongst three tournaments. The day finally arrived where our family was divided and we managed, but I really missed watching my boys play ball and I hated that Darren was unable to cheer our beauty queen on.

We spent the entire day hanging with some of our favorite dance peeps: Ella and Lori Brown and I also really enjoyed being able to chat with Shey Cline.  She's my go to for everything and has really been a big blessing this year as I learn the ropes.

Overall, Lilah's division for her hiphop dance won 5 stars out of 6 stars, which according to WCTE receiving 6 stars is next to impossible because it is considered a perfect score.  Her team also won 3rd place out of 5 awards granted, for this category. The judges also gave a special award to this dance group for their song selection.  The award was called the "Old School Award". TOTALY amazing for her first "rodeo" and now these girls have something to work towards for their competition in Charlotte.

We were told to leave our cameras home and now photos of everyone's children are surfacing on Facebook. I'm pretty bummed that I am such a rule follower and therefore failed to capture my daughter's first dance competition ever. I am thankful for Penny Whitmer who captured these photos, after an announcement was made that still/no flash photography would be accepted (I missed the announcer's announcement).  

The next dance that Lilah performed in was called, "Dance TV".  It was the SuperGroup dance.  The dress code for this dance was 80's.  No costumes were purchased.  We were responsible for coming up with our own 80's style costume.  It had to be approved.  We are thankful for NEON being back in style, because we were able to find some neon jelly bracelets, BUT, the actually outfit came from a dancer friend and neighbor that we love, Emma Stanley. Lilah and Emma both shared a dance studio at one point and we knew Emma had loads of neon.

This dance received a special award called, "Dancing In Heaven Award!" 

It's pretty cool watching Lilah with the older girls.  She has always wanted a sister and now she has like 60.  LOL!

We were at the Berglund Center from 1:00 pm until about 11:45 pm.  It was a VERY LONG DAY! And I am sure so many of those moms who had 6+ dances to help their daughters with laugh at me when I say I have a "dance mom hangover".  LOL! Regardless of the # of dances, the truth is... you are OFF schedule, bound to a locale, hungry, eating things you don't normally eat, lacking caffeine, potty breaks, and your feet are on FIRE!!!! ALLLLL while having a blast and making wonderful memories.  At one point, Lori, Ella, Lilah, and I snuck away for a good 1.5 hours to Starbucks to just chill.  

At Divine Dance Studio, Mrs. Riley has a "Bull Buddy" system where she pairs up ONE older dancer with a younger dancer.  It is encouraged that each dancer supports the other while they are dancing on stage. Before competitions and recitals they exchange small gifts as well as at Christmas time! Lilah was paired up with a sweet girl named Elizabeth.  She is also a twin.  How cool is that?  Elizabeth is a very creative gift giver and an even better artist. Lilah and Elizabeth's gift exchanges have been pretty impressive.

We gave Elizabeth the cutest collection of Valentine's Day snacks and a LipSense collection.  It may NOT seem like much, but a collection is valued at $60.00. The color we gave her was Blu-Red which is comparable to the red lip color required for ALL competitions, except the studio uses a cheap lip stain.  LipSense, as you know, is EXCELLENT quality and safe! We dressed up a beautiful, pink mason jar with krinkle paper and a wine tutu, giving the jar the look of a ballerina.

I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Elizabeth gave Lilah the sweetest handmade card, (2) large bags of sour patch candies, and (2) gift certificates: one to Starbucks and one to Chick-Fil-A.  WOWWOWOW!

 I kept things reallllly simple yesterday. Competitive dancing is probably the most expensive thing we’ve ever committed to. And being there are many more competitions to come, plus recital, I didn’t want to set a gift precedent. It was L’s first competition, so I had to give her something. We don’t do flowers, but I don’t mind chocolate flowers!! She received a dozen, mini, chocolate roses. I’m working on a blog post now! 

And just to show you how amazing Elizabeth's artistry is... check out the card she made for Lilah at Christmas too!

It was a beautiful day every way you looked at it.

And that's a wrap!