[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]

Last night, during Loyette and Loyacita’s dance recital, there was an absolutely delightful moment when our 3 ½ year old daughter became that kid – there’s always one, or so it seems, at these little-kid concerts and recitals – who makes a hilariously adorable mistake, handles it with joyful aplomb, and instantly becomes the audience favorite. “She owned the show,” said a parent in the row behind us. Yup. And I was lucky enough to capture a sublime photo of the very instant when she became a star (which then, of course, became the basis for my “motivational poster” above).

Here’s what happened. About a minute into her ballet class’s “Cinderella” dance, Loyacita – who was standing at the very far end of the line of dancers, near stage left – mysteriously decided that it was time to leave the stage, and more specifically, to exit stage right. So, all by herself, with a smile on her face and a spring in her step, she started joyfully dancing away from the rest of her class. I think she expected them to follow her, but she was mixed up about where they were in their routine. It wasn’t time to finish yet, so they stayed put. Thus, by the time Loyacita got to the middle of the stage, she was all alone, looking and moving in the opposite direction from everyone else, and heading prematurely but unhesitatingly offstage. She, however, was totally unfazed by this. She just kept delightedly dancing off stage right, toward the teachers who were huddled backstage, just out of sight. The audience chuckled. It was really cute.

Then, just as Loyacita disappeared from view, one of the teachers could be seen emerging from the shadows and gesturing to her: go back on stage! After a moment’s delay, she turned around and started dancing right back across the stage in the opposite direction, still broadly smiling, completely unfazed and obviously having a great time. At this point the audience started really laughing – not at Loyacita, of course, but with her, appreciating her adorable, innocent joy amid her unwitting star turn. As she, followed this time by the rest of the class, disappeared off stage for good (exiting stage left), there were sustained and delighted cheers, some of the loudest of the night. It was truly a magical moment.

There were maybe two dozen dance routines during the recital, but I think for a lot of people in attendance, the most memorable parts of the show will have been, in order: 1) whatever their own kid(s) did; 2) Loyacita’s unplanned solo. As for Loyacita herself, I don’t think she has any concept that she became “the star of the show.” She seemed neither aware of having made a mistake, nor aware of having become an audience favorite for how cute it all was. She was just having fun dancing up there.

From my perspective as the proud dad of the accidental star, what makes this even greater is how well what happened – and the photo of it – meshes with Loyacita’s personality. If any of our kids was going to do something that fits the textbook definition of marching (or, in this case, dancing) to the beat of a different drummer, it would be Loyacita. In our trio of girls, if Loyette is the lawyer and Loyabelle is the comedian, Loyacita is the artist – the free-spirited, imaginative, footloose and fancy-free little sprite of a kid. So the whole thing was just perfect.

Over on Facebook, some of the comments encapsulated my feelings well:

• “I love this. I feel like it needs to be an ad, or a meme or an inspirational poster or…just something!”

• “This will be the star image at her rehearsal dinner…”

• “That’s a senior year of high school yearbook family photo insert if I’ve ever seen one.”

• “Yeah, you’re just going to have to show this on all of her first dates.”

• “LOYACITA FTW!!”

• “This is spectacular.”

Totally spectacular and awesome. I couldn’t be more tickled and proud. 🙂 And by the way, Loyette did a great job too. Becky and I both repeatedly complimented both girls and told them how proud we are of them. They did great! I love my kids so much. They’re the absolute best. #dadlife #sappydad

P.S. For posterity, the punch-line of the “motivational poster” refers to this meme.