Why I Dance and Create Dance

Tonight was dress rehearsal!  Yay!  It means we are about to end the year and show everyone our hard work!  Tonight was why I dance.  Tonight was why I choreograph.

When I started in the August things were a bit rough for a few months with my older girls.  A big part of it was I was new and had a different style.  They weren't used to me.  So we were adjusting and it was a battle!  Let's just say lots of drama with kids and parents.  Luckily, my boss was very supportive.  She kept saying that they had to get used to my style.

You see, I teach in a very small town, so they have all been dancing together since before they were born.  So they have had the same teachers, and these teachers had the same teachers.  See what I'm getting at?  It's not a bad thing, but I came in with different experiences and styles.  So I come in with my weird style, and gosh did those girls fight me!  The piece is about them using all of their extensions to the fullest. They hated that, they said it was slow and not hard.  But they weren't trying, they never used their stretched to the fullest extent.  They were missing the hard part.  Finally, they got it.   They get me now, and I get them.  It just took some time, longer than I expected though.

Tonight, I got my validation on it and on a few of my pieces.  After my girls did Winter's Night, one of my Jr Company parents said, "S, that was really good!"  Another parent that I had not met before came up to me and said, "Did you choreograph that?  That was DANCE!  That is what I see dance as!"  Someone got it!  They understood!  I felt so good with those to comments.  A bit later I was talking with another Jr Company mom, and she said, "That musical theatre piece was really good!  And the ballet, did you do the ballet?  That's M's favorite dance, and I loved it!  And your piece with them in the ice blue, I had to ask who did that, because it was so different!  You could tell it wasn't one of the normal teachers because it was so different.  I loved it, and this part (she describes the moment) was amazing!" 

It's those things you love to hear.  It's an ego boost, we all need them every once in awhile.  I admit lately, I wondered if my choreography was up to par with the other teachers.  I mean I would look at their pieces and I thought yes they were, but I wasn't ever really hearing any feed back.  Now, I know that it is, but I just do things differently (which I knew anyways.)  Now, no more wondering.

So I teach because I want to touch the world, I dance because have too, I create because it's my outlet.

"I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance." ~George Balanchine