Endings

Finale time at dance school.  "Finale" is a fancy way of saying "recital" without actually using the word.  It nicely conveys the sentiment that we're wrapping things up for the year.

Annabeth performed in beginning pointe and regular ballet:

And also in an advanced tap number that was a medley of Star Wars music, and one of the most creative things I've seen in a while:

In other endings, we've finished up the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  It's time to bid goodbye to middle school.

And, of course, there was a costume to make.

Wrapping up OTSL Spring Training, for the little recital on the final day the kids were divided into groups and asked to stage a scene from The Mikado.  Annabeth ended up with the geekier set, and they chose to stage it as The Avengers.  Annabeth decided to portray Peter Parker -- she's fascinated with Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the role, and has spent quite a bit of time analyzing his character choices and movement patterns.

The kids whipped up some simple costumes for the occasion.  Annabeth had visions of making a stencil and painting an old sweatshirt, but what actually worked was printing out a picture of the logo, applying shiny red Duck Tape to the back of the printout, cutting it out, and then gluing it to the sweatshirt.

Here she is with some of her fellow Avengers.  The guy playing Iron Man found an app that looked like an arc reactor, and taped his phone to his chest under a tshirt -- very creative.

It was a cute performance.  Interestingly, they had the less talented group overall (which isn't to say they weren't talented -- it's just that the other group had some kids who were off-the-charts AMAZING) but their rendition held together better as a story.  The other group set the scene in a school, had fine characterizations, wonderful singing, but somehow didn't manage to convey the story as well.  (Annabeth and I discussed how this is rather like  theater groups who attract talented people but have crappy directing that leave the whole less than the sum of the parts. Not that we're admitting we know any groups like that.  Ahem.)

Everyone also sang a solo.  As I mentioned, there were some performances that were absolutely stunning.  Annabeth had a falling out with her voice coach by that point, which said person probably didn't even realize had occurred. Her performance was ... interesting ....  I don't think I've ever seen her sing an entire song with that "I'm smiling while I'm thinking about how I'd like to murder someone" expression on her face.  There's a good chance Annabeth will refuse to attend another of the OTSL camps in the future due to preference of not dealing with that person again.  Oh well.

Final bento -- tiny twice baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, grapes and blueberries:

So the Annabeth's singing camp is done.  Still to come for her are a dance camp and and theater camp.