Daddy, can we dance?

SNOHOMISH – The beaming young girls, ages 7 to 10, lined up across the stage in their brightly colored bathing suits and filmy white skirts.

Behind them, their fathers also lined the stage, resplendent in their flowered Hawaiian shirts, summer shorts and dark sandals.

The fathers (and one grandfather), ages 32 to 61, more than made up in spirit for what they lacked in stage experience. They jogged across the stage, knees rising high, hands waving wildly.

After all, they’d practiced faithfully for 16 weeks, repeatedly dancing the bunny hop, the can-can, faux-surfing and hoisting their daughters into the air or onto their shoulders.

And don’t forget to smile, prompted ballet teacher Christine Raymond as she pointed to her own broad smile.

It wasn’t exactly sweatin’ to the oldies, but it was sweating.

The daddies-and-daughters dance number lasted only 31/2 minutes, but while the young ladies breezed through it, the dads worked up a sweat.

So much so that some of the girls were a little reluctant to grab the backs of their dads’ shorts for the bunny hop because they were getting slightly damp from their daddies’ labors, Raymond said.

Three months of preparation ended Friday with Gymnastics Plus’ annual dance recital at the Lake Stevens High School Performing Arts Center.

“It’s fun,” said Scott Kimzey about cavorting with daughter Shelby, 8.

Wife Jackie Kimzey, 38, said the recital was “really a big deal” for Scott Kimzey, 40, owner of Gotcha Pest Control.

“We had to sit through a whole dinner of her asking the question and the batting of the eyes, and, ‘Daddy, it would make me so happy,’” Jackie Kimzey said.

While he had to be convinced, Scott Kimzey is glad he agreed.

“This is something we’re going to remember all our lifetimes,” he said.

When Raymond began to prepare for the recital, she wanted to do something different. At class after class, she only saw one father drop off his daughter, she said.

“I thought, ‘I’d love to teach a musical theater number for the dads,’” she said.

She posted a sign-up sheet hoping to get at least three fathers to volunteer for the brief number. She fibbed and told them they wouldn’t have to dance, that their daughters would do all the work except for the dads lifting the girls into the air.

She was astonished when 12 signed up.

“They were extremely awkward” at first, Raymond said. “Then they realized they were going to be dancing.”

Sam Smith, 38, a mechanic at Bickford Ford, went into the project not knowing what to expect, said his wife, Christina Smith, 32. “But he’s just had lots of fun.”

At home, Smith and daughter Ellen, 9, moved furniture to practice. And on Wednesday nights, he took Ellen her dinner at the dance studio so she could eat before their practice.

“Who could say no to this?” Sam Smith said. “It’s really neat.”

He won’t miss it now that it’s over for this year, but he’s already looking forward to next year.

Dave Anderson, 37, is a stay-at-home dad right now, with daughter Daria, 7, and son Derek, 11. As long as he followed daughter Daria’s lead, he was OK, and the girls were having fun.

“Just remembering every step and counting in your head” was the hardest, he said.

Daria called her dad a “goofy” dancer and said she enjoyed practicing the “crazy” dances with him, but complained, “He gets really sweaty.”

“It’s tiring, even though it’s only 31/2 minutes,” Dave Anderson said. “But it’s a chance to do something with my daughter. I didn’t know what I was getting myself in for. Then it’s this whole big shindig. But she’s pretty excited.”

“It’s just too cute,” Gymnastics Plus owner Jean Hackel said. “It is so amazing. I can’t believe Christine got the guys to do it.”

The studio has about 300 students in gymnastics and dance. She originally added ballet classes to help give the gymnasts grace and poise. The ballet classes with “Miss Christine” turned out to be fantastic, she said.

“I think the daddies learned a lot, too,” she added with a grin.

Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.