What a weekend.  Wow.  So many milestones met, friendships deepened, and laughs shared by all.  I can’t even begin to express to you the amount of love and support I felt throughout the entire week leading up to this show, as friends and audience members from every stage of my life reached out to me in congratulations.  I certainly have a long way to go in my dancing, but can now say I know what it’s like to dance an entire two act story ballet and make it out alive!

As the music swelled into that final crescendo on Sunday afternoon, I leaned in to accept Ian’s sweaty kiss, and he flew off to Neverland for the last time.  Watching him raise up through the window with those signature flexed feet I backed off slowly, stepping blindly backwards closer to the edge of the stage with every stride.  Waving my right hand with a sad sort of vigor, I kept our thimble pressed in the palm of my left one, careful not to spill out any of its magic.  My ears picked up just a muffled version of applause, only truly listening to the horns as they held out their last notes and I felt the silent velvet curtain drop down behind me.  Ian’s face broke from Peter’s smile to his own, and I think he was the happiest I have ever seen him.  I ran in to hug him as he lowered back to the stage and tears surprised me, creeping in behind me eyes.  But this was not the time to cry- with curtain call waiting- so I forced them away and stored my thimble back in Wendy’s wooden sewing box one last time.

I will never forget the memories, the magic, and most of all the message of this show.  With faith, trust, and pixie dust, anything you imagine can be real.  All you have to do is believe.