Dancing Queen

On this busy weekend, filled with sunshine, sickness and stormy weather, Julia had her first Mandarin dancing competition. Since there are only two girls in her class, Julia would be dancing with another group of girls from Richmond Hill. There was the challenge of now dancing with a larger group, and technical difficulties with the music. Luckily, the adjudicators agreed to let the girls dance a second time when the sound system was fixed.

Lots of water makes for a good dance - 

and less of a chance of breaking into a bone rattling cough.

We were thrilled to have Maggie and Christine come to watch Julia dance. We've loved watching Maggie dance over the years - seeing her compete in Irish dancing for the very first time 6 years ago - Julia was just a baby then, barely walking herself. I guess Julia is the age now Maggie was when Maggie first started competing. The tradition continues. Maggie is now doing jazz and lyrical dancing and had her first competition the day before Julia's. We were sorry to have missed that.

Cecilia and Julia, the dancing duo - 

it's been just the two of them dancing 

until the preparation for this competition.

The dance is a combination of ballet and some acrobatic moves - lovely and lyrical. Unfortunately for us,  the adjudicators gave their remarks and results in Mandarin - so I don't know what they said about Julia's group. We joked that Maggie is now fluent in Mandarin as she said she thought she heard the judge say how flexible the girls in Julia's group were - we certainly know that to be true in Julia's case as the next two photos will attest.

Julia was the only girl in the group to do the splits.

I was worried with Julia being so sick that we would have to miss this event, but she was determined to go. She mustered all her strength and pulled it off. There was a teenage girl competing as well - she did a lovely ribbon dance. I must admit I was doing a 7 or 8 year fast forward in my head till Julia would be that age, and wondering if she'll still be interested in dancing.