Tuesday 28 May 2013

The Beauty of Dance

Hello Beautiful People :)
It's me again!
I hope you don't mind me blogging more than once a day.
I just have so many things to blog about and I don't want to forget about them.
This post is more personal and about something that means a lot to me.
I'm assuming that you know what it is about because of the title.
Yes, this is a dance post.
Something that I haven't talked about much on this blog :(

Earlier this evening I was watching So You Think You Can Dance and watching some of the auditions really made me miss dancing.
Dance has been such an important part of my life since I was 6.
A day doesn't go by when I'm not choreographing routines in my head or dancing around my house.
The dance studio was and still is my happy place.
It is the place where I can truly express myself, work hard and still have a smile on my face.
I always feel welcomed and loved by my fellow dancers, students, parents and teachers.
It's not a place of judgement. 
You grow as dancers and as people with your team.
What I love about the studio that I graduated from and now work for is the strong sense of family.
I have such a strong support group at my studio and many of the dancers are my sisters because I spend so much time with them.

I am trained in every style of dance, but lyrical and tap being my specialities.
What I love the most about lyrical is how lost I can get in the music.
The music literally controls me. 
I love telling stories through routines, especially when I can personally relate to them.
Give me a lyrical routine and I will put 110% of myself into it.
Every part of my body is engaged in the routine and I love that feeling.
My favourite thing about tap is all the rhythms.
Tap is so intricate, so many different rhythms can be made.
I love watching tap routines and listening intently to all of the sounds.
Tap isn't always so easy, but once you can nail a routine, it is so satisfying!
My graduating lyrical solo 2012
 In my opinion dance is underestimated by many, especially athletes.
Dance is a way to express yourself, therefore making it an art.
But the amount of muscle and strength it takes to successfully express yourself makes it a sport.
I am so tired of people laughing and rejecting dance as a sport.
Let's get a hockey player or a soccer player into a dance studio and see how long they last.
It's insulting to us dancers when people laugh when we consider dance a sport. 
A nice sweaty photo after a long work out

Some of my friends don't understand the concept of being able to tell a story through a dance.
But for me it is so easy to unravel what a dancer is trying to tell their audience.
Almost every routine has a story.
Dancers are capable of making their audience cry, laugh and feel the anger that they are feeling.
& to me that is what makes dancers unique.
I think it just takes a person who can appreciate dance to understand the story.
Unfortunately, not everyone does so the stories are sometimes unable to be portrayed to them.
My senior jazz group 2012 with a pretty intense story 
I miss dancing so much.
I didn't realize until my senior year that I am definitely more of a performer than I am a dancer.
I love being on stage and performing in front of others.
There's this feeling I get being on stage that makes me so happy.
It gets even better when I walk off the stage feeling 100% satisfied with how I danced.
There isn't a better feeling than both you and your choreographer being proud of the way you performed. 
I miss the competition environment...well minus the catty dancers.
If I could, I would be back on the stage in a heart beat.

As much as I love watching my students shine on stage, it's very different being on the choreographer side of things.
It's an adjustment that I'm going to have to get use to.
My goal now as a choreographer is to share my passion and drive with my girls.
Hopefully, with a year with me the passion and drive will start to rub off on them and it'll start making a difference in their performance.
Because to me, if you have flawless technique but very poor stage presence then I don't want to watch you dance.
A beautiful dancer is someone who has strong technique, but is also able to captivate the audience with their performance. 
A dancer is more than her legs and her ability to turn.
A dancer is being able to show everyone how much you love dance through each and every movement.
It's All Coming Back to Me 2012
 Well that's all for today ladies and gents.
I wish I could keep going, but I don't want to bore you all!
I hope you enjoyed my "rant" about dance.
I will leave you with a link of me and my duet partner dancing.
The video was taken in 2011, but it's one of my favourites and the most recent.
I hope you like it :)HERE
Leave comments below if you are a dancer or your thoughts about dance!
Also, let me know if you want me to do more dance related posts :)
Hugs and Butterfly Kisses
xx

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