It’s that time of year when most dance schools hold their annual recitals. If you have a loved one or friend who dances, you may have the chance to attend one of these events.  Most of the time recitals are a series of short pieces that showcase each age group and style of class offered at the school. If it’s a large school, the list of pieces performed can be quite long.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my goddaughter Margaret, dance Kitri, the lead in Don Quixote. This was Twin Rivers Dance Academy’s year-end recital and they did a wonderful job (Margaret danced beautifully!). Instead of the typical recital format, with unrelated dance numbers, this performance of Don Quixote had numerous parts that help to tell the story. All age groups performed in the ballet, from cute little ones that danced their hearts out to adult ballet students.

As a youngster I participated in similar performances, but we very rarely did a year-end recital. I belonged to an amateur company that was affiliated with the dance school I attended. Around the winter holidays, we would present Nutcracker and in the spring, we always performed a full length ballet such as Swan Lake, Graduation Ball, and Les Sylphides.

All dancers at the school participated except very young ones. Rehearsals were held on the weekends outside our regular classes. This way we were able to work on technique in class, rather than practice the performance pieces.

It was a huge commitment, but I’m happy that I had the opportunity to participate in those performances (thanks Mom and Dad for driving me to rehearsals). I have lots of wonderful memories of those shows.

We don’t do a year-end recital or performance at Albany Dance & Fitness, since most of the adult students are interested in taking the classes for fitness and enjoyment. However, we are looking into some performance opportunities for those that might be interested.

We’d love to hear about your dance performance experiences. Were you ever on stage? Have you watched a local recital? Would you like to dance in a show?