Dance Dance

The last few weeks I've thought a lot about how my exposure and experience with dance has evolved over the years. I think I've almost always been doing dance of some sort, but it definitely changes and at certain points I've been really involved in one....but then soon embrace a new style and continue on.

I've always considered myself to be a dancer. I danced and did gymnastics when I was really young. Then, between cross-country moves and dozens of other things, I had a few years without it. Then, I think it was sometime during 7th or 8th grade that the movie Center Stage came out. I so wanted to see this movie. For some reason I wasn't able to go with my friends or kept putting it off...and the movie left the theaters. Then I found out it was in the dollar theaters. Again, I HAD to go. My aunt Margie said she'd want to go with me, (really she'd take me because I didn't drive and probably didn't have any money :P) but on the day we planned, the movie had left even the dollar theater. NO! I had to see this in theaters...and I so wanted to see it right then. Well, we probably weren't as apt with the Internet as we are today, but we somehow ended up finding a theater 30 mins or so away that was still playing it. We finally caught it.

And I loved it.

And, yes, I cried.

It was actually that moment that made me remember how much I loved to dance. I don't remember if I was already back in classes or if I signed up afterwards, but that was definitely a moment that threw me back into it.

I, of course, did ballet and jazz. I also did tap, although I sucked at it. (I wasn't able to relax my feet enough.) And I did classical character (a stylized type of folk, a lot of flamenca). I basically did anything I could. I remember I was in a really good studio with a really good teacher, but then she had to quit or something. Then this pretty young girl bought the studio and took over. For some reason in my memories, she reminds me of Sophia Bush. She didn't have the technically training my other teacher had, but she was still good. She was more into competition and costumes and the such. My former teacher had been more focused on technique. This would have been my first experience with dance competitions...but unfortunately this was also around the time my family was supposed to be moving to Virginia. My dad had already left and we were trying to sell our house so we could join him. So I didn't buy the competition costumes or plan on participating. But our house stuff took longer than planned and I was actually still around...oh well. (Our competition piece was to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal." I still remember our intro.) In spite of the move, I tried out for my high school's dance team. There were probably around a hundred girls trying out and maybe 12 spots open...and I made it!!! I was super excited...but then the move finalized and I had to turn down my spot. :(

I wanted to keep dancing so some friends helped me make a tryout video which I mailed to my new high school, hoping I could join their dance team. I didn't know anything about it, but dancing in high school was always what I'd planned on doing. I didn't hear back for a while. We moved out to VA and got settled and such. Some of my new friends in my ward knew some people on the dance team and told me when they'd be starting practices and stuff. I called the school to get information about the coach and such and we set up a meeting. I remember the coach telling me how they didn't know if I'd be interested still because I was very trained in classic dance like ballet and jazz....and the team, well the team was not so much, very much more hip hop. But they agreed to let me go to the first couple practices to see how things worked out. I believe there were maybe only three of us who had actually taken dance lessons. On the first practice we did a bunch of things across the floor, like leaps, battements, and chaines. Then they tried teaching axle turns—my favorite move! I remember everyone's awe as I completed my round across the floor: chaine, chaine, axle, chaine, chaine, axel... Likewise, I was kinda amazed that no one else knew how to do it. (Except Kiyana of course) I had to learn the dance routine for the first football game next...uh, yea, it took me a while. It was definitely a different genre of dance for me. Kiyana (the co-captain) taught it to me via mirroring...which was something we hadn't done much in my classes so I was always really confused. Haha.

I didn't take formal dance classes that year. Just dance team. We had a lot of things we had to pay for, so I didn't want to take on additional lessons and all the costumes and other charges as well. But one year was enough for me. The dance team only had maybe 10 girls on it...and we all didn't always preform because we had to try out for each performance and only did it if we 100 percent had the routine down. I had fun, but wasn't getting what I wanted to out of dance. So for my senior year I quit and started lessons again.

My technique was lacking but I got back into ballet, point, jazz, hip hop, modern, pilates...and possibly others. I pretty much had dance classes every day. I often had to miss mutal activities and had to arrange my work schedule just for the weekend evenings. But I loved it.

Coming out to BYU, I planned to do a minor in dance. My first semester I think I have 4 or 5 dance classes. I tried out for a folk dance team and did that my first year. Plus ballet, pointe and jazz classes. That was the last time I did ballet. After that, I got more into the folk classes. I took Irish, clogging, and modern (just remember how much I LOVED that class) my second semester.

One of my friends freshmen year told me to try ballroom. At first I said no, because dance for me was all about expression and emotion and I didn't really feel that in ballroom. I don't remember the timeline but I kept taking jazz classes and did also started taking social and ballroom dance classes. This was something I really hadn't done before. I took all of the social classes, the upper country class and a couple standard and latin classes. I did folk on and off for a while. As I got further along in school, I had less time for dance, but did always manage to have one or two classes a semester.

After graduating I moved to SLC but didn't have classes. I started going to the gym regularly and got a bit of my fix mostly through step classes. Hey, there were routines and steps and turns so it kinda counts. When I had just a month left there, I found out about the Rose Wagner dance studio downtown. I went for my first all day $5 workshop and took African, Brazilian, jazz, ballroom, and modern classes. It was so nice doing it again! I wanted to sign up for a dance card, but didn't think it would be worth the $80 bucks if I didn't use it.

Now, my dancing is mostly latin dancing through Zumba classes and country dancing. I do Zumba almost every day and have been trying to do country dancing twice a week. (I have for two weeks so far) Every once in a while, I head up to Salt Lake for another workshop. I still wish I lived there, soley for the purpose of attending that studio. I would still loove to take additional classes...I guess we'll see where my next transition takes me.

P.S. I had a COMPLETELY different purpose for starting this post about dancing...haha maybe I talk about that later. :)