Not Your Average Dance Recital

As a professional ice hockey player, Dave Grimson is used to performing before large crowds. On Saturday night, an audience of about 700 at Fermi High School watched him pull off his most impressive accomplishment.

The finale of the recital had just concluded, and all the dancers were on the stage. Grimson, whose girlfriend Brenna DaSilva is co-director of the production, was helping out behind the scenes when he was summoned to the stage. He said a few words to DaSilva, then suddenly dropped to one knee and proposed marriage to her as the children and audience cheered wildly.

"As soon as I dropped to one knee, the girls and the crowd went crazy," Grimson said. "I don't think she even answered me, she just motioned for me to stand up and hug and kiss her."

In his left hand, Grimson held out a small box that contained a very special heirloom. "He gave me a ring that had been my great-grandmother's, so it means a lot with the family history," DaSilva said.

Grimson, 27, and DaSilva, 25, began dating four years ago, when both were students at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Grimson is from a small town in Saskatchewan, while DaSilva grew up in Enfield, where her mother Kate owns the dance studio founded in 1938 by her mother, Marion Riley.

A defenseman for the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League, Grimson returned to Connecticut in mid-May after the Rush were eliminated from the CHL playoffs. He wanted to find a unique way of proposing to Brenna, and approached Kate DaSilva with an idea.

"I talked it over with Kate and a few others who run the show, and decided to do it during the recital," he said.

Brenna said she was totally caught off guard. "I hoped we'd get engaged sometime, but never thought he'd have the courage to do it in front of all those people," she said. "He understands what a huge part of my life the dance studio is."

"This is definitely a first in all the years I've been here," Kate DaSilva said. "The kids' reactions were the best. I thought it was nice that he would put himself out there, knowing how much the studio means to her."

Grimson knows that Connecticut will be their permanent home when his hockey career is over. "When I saw my first recital in 2009, I realized she can never leave here," he said.

The couple said they are considering a 2012 wedding.