Dance

My love of music fuels my love of dance which fuels my love of music all over again. I have loved music a lot longer than dance but I couldn’t see my life without either. You really don’t need any music to dance around, but it certainly helps. You can always make up your own music OR dance in the moment. Sometimes that is the best kind. The more random the better. It is crazy how many dance styles that exist.

I did not start dancing really young like some dancers. Some people have known they loved dance for a long time but I actually did not start until I was in middle school. I originally wanted to get into taking Hip Hop lessons so I started with ballet, which is the basis of all dance, and I fell in love. After starting out in the basics, I eventually upgraded to learning how to stand on my toes in pointe shoes. I liked it so much that I was in an actual performance (huge for me) in the Nutcracker as a seraphim and mouse in 2004. I could not believe how much work went into that whole performance. The costumes, rehearsals, timing, chaos is crazy. But it was worth it in the end. That is the biggest performance I have ever done in my life. I would be okay not to do again though. Being on stage is not my favorite but I learned a lot from it.   

My ballet instructor told me I had a natural talent for it so I stayed in ballet until I got into high school and joined the dance team in 2005. I learned a lot while in the dance team at school but got so attached to the original group and took it really hard after people graduated and were no longer part of the team. Eventually my passion for the team went away and my grades were not good enough to continue next year. I did end up taking a hip hop dance class outside of school, though I am not sure when. I did not love it as much as I thought I would have. It is crazy that the dance I wanted to learn from the start turned out to be not for me. At least, not to dance in a studio. I loved learning how to clog while on the dance team. That is the other style I loved learning. My favorite routine we did was at a halftime performance against our biggest rival in town. It was clogging on these wooden boards to this drum line beat that sounded like it was on metal trash cans. I remember that performance being such a thrill.

What I loved about dance is that you can totally get lost in the moment and flow of the music. If you are really into the music, it becomes really hard not to move to it. Like pretty much any salsa music makes me want to move. Growing up listening to Hip-Hop made me want to learn to dance to it. Music has a tendency to lead to dance. I love how music and dance both are a language that can be understood by many. There are many cultures that incorporate music and dance into their rituals and history, which I think is really cool. You don’t need to know the language to join others in dance. You just watch and do. For me dancing isn’t me moving my body but feeling the music and let it move me. It is hard to explain. When I am really emotionally connected to the music and the dance flows with it so well, it is so beautiful to me. There does not have to be any words at all and I really like that. Sometimes words do more harm than good.

I love watching dance competition shows like So You Think You Can Dance where they take dancers from all over and trained in many different styles and throw a bunch of other dance styles at them to see how they perform. I have been really surprised at how well some of them pick up dance styles totally out of their comfort zone that they have never tried before. I have learned of other dance styles and choreographers through that show that I have never heard of before. Dancing has a way of making you so emotional just by moving to a song. There is so much you can say without saying a word. I feel so many emotions just watching someone dance sometimes.  I know for some it is easier to see the story being told than others. It might look like a simple dance routine but look at their expressions, how they interact with each other or a prop. Listen to the music as well because a good choreographer will incorporate both together.

In 2020 I randomly decided to learn this new dance I kept seeing on Tik Tok called shuffling. If you try to do the running man then you get the basics. I even got some shoes I thought would be good for learning the dance. I started to practice some on breaks at work to occupy my time and started picking it up some. It was fun trying to learn a new dance just by watching videos and doing myself, even if it wasn’t perfect. Shuffling reminds me of how people danced at a rave club where I met my husband. I never thought I would be into techno or trance music but I totally get it. You can move to any music if you try. Sometimes we get stuck in our heads and don’t let the music and moment take over. Maybe if we get out of our heads and try to trust the process more, we can surprise ourselves by being better at it than we thought. I had no idea I had a knack for ballet until I tried it to learn hip hop. Sometimes it is not about getting down the steps but what you get out of it, even if just moving your body. Letting yourself make mistakes and still practicing is key.