How Dancing Shaped My Life

I started dancing when I was 6 years old, and my first ever performance was at the end of year Christmas concert to 'Hey Mickey!' (I still have the costume and the crop is now the size of my hand). I obviously killed it, because I continued to dance competitively for 12 years, and teach for 3 years after that. Dancing gave me lifelong friendships, lessons and memories which I will cherish forever. This is going to be my attempt to convince you to one day put your little girl through dancing because believe me, it will be the most amazing experience for both you and her.

After a few years of dancing and building up my confidence, I ended up doing most genres my dance school offered. Jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, lyrical and I dabbled in hip hop but I'm more of a freestyle kinda gal, ya know? I was asked to join Troupe which was a group of dancers in your age group that travelled around Australia (mostly NSW & ACT with odd competitions in VIC and QLD) to compete against other dance schools & at a national level. This was like a holiday with your best friends, doing what you loved and going out to dinner every night... AMAZING! Our dance school had some really great dancers, and we have lots of blue ribbons to show for it. 1st & 2nd place were the norm for us, and we didn't expect anything less either. For tweens, we were absolutely killing it.

In the middle of this I was asked to do solos, where you had one-on-one lessons with your teacher and competed on stage against others in your age group, solo. Of course being the cocky shit I am I jumped at the chance to do it, and did quite well until high school stole my soul. Peer pressure got to me and I hate admitting it. It's completely against what I believe and I regret letting it consume me. I was dancing 4 nights a week for 4 hours plus weekends for solo lessons. I had no time to hang with friends or see them on the weekends even, and they let me know it! If I had one piece of advice for dancers it would be to listen to what your mind and heart is telling you, not your group of friends. Don't let them tell you that missing out on hanging out at the mall or park after school or on the weekends is more important than your dancing, because it totally isn't.

Away from the competitive side of dancing, it kept me extremely fit and mobile up until my early twenties (currently working on getting back into the splits, and I'm almost there!). My mum always said if I wasn't dancing I definitely would have been the size of a house with how much I was eating (food is life). Looking back I see the intensity and strain it has on your body, but back then it didn't even seem like exercise. It was dancing. It was rehearsal. It was hanging out with your besties in the splits on your dinner break. Ah, the simple life. When we could consume copious amounts of two minute noodles and Bakers Delight scrolls. What a dream!

While dancing was mostly for fun, once I left high school I decided to up my game and become a teacher. I taught at the same dance school I danced at for three years, teaching kids from the age of 3-17. You might think that teaching 3-5 year olds ballet is cute and only involves tutu's and jumping, but it doesn't. If I'm honest, it was my least favourite class to teach. Do you know how hard it is to control 8 children running around wanting to spin for half an hour? And the pressure of having them perform something at the end of year Christmas concert so their parents don't think it's a waste of money sending them to me? On the other end of the spectrum, I did have some 'too cool for school' teenagers in my older classes, but once they warmed up around Term 2 they were able to listen and have fun with me. Teaching dance was something I always wanted to do when I was younger and I am so grateful to be able to have got the chance to do so. It taught me patience, creativity and inspiration.

To this day, dancing is still a passion of mine. I'm the first one on the dance floor, my Instagram feed is full of the latest choreographers and I'm known to have a dance party in the car when driving... anywhere. Dance is an expression, a feeling and an art to be enjoyed and mesmerised by for decades to come. Especially a 6yo Hey Mickey! performance.

NB: Sequins will be sewn at 1am and you will hate it at the time. Just remember it's those memories you will one day miss!

Yours in Dance,

PS. Move more, move better

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