Is it healthy?

Dance is a danger to all that partake in its elegance. While you may only see the beauty in ballet, or the emotions in the movement, what people don't see is the blood, sweat and tears that go into making those movement come to life.
People get injured all the time in dance, whether it be minor, like a rolled ankle, or a torn ACL. All injuries lead to the same outcome, you can't dance. With the minor injuries you may only have to stop dancing for a few days. Depending on the severity, you may never be able to dance again.
All dancers are affected the same way, they are devastated, if they are true dancers they cant live without dance. All dancers will get injured, how they deal with it is the real problem. Some dancers do not know where to stop, so even though they have a sore ankle, they don't see it as anything serious so they keep dancing until it is irreversible.
As you see below, this is a healthy foot, then a dancers foot, this is very typical in all dancers, especially ballerinas. They work through their feel and this causes their bones to change, based on how they use them for dance.
One key element to being a dancer, is knowing your limits. If you don't know your limits you will push yourself to the point of no return, and that will ruin you.

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What Happens?

Picture from 

http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/26/2617/WZDMD00Z/posters/lord-rick-dance.jpg

A lot of people continue to ask me "What happens if you come to the realization that you are not a good dancer?" or "What happens when you don't love it as much?" or the most common question, "What happens if you get injured?"

Each question is a great question to ponder, however, for a dancer very simple to answer. When somebody asks me what happens if I come to the realization that I am not a good dancer, I simply reply, "I find out what I can do to make my dancing better, and if that means starting over from scratch, then I will, dance is worth fighting for to me."

Then they always ask me what happens when I don't love dance so much? I quickly respond, “That will NEVER happen, my drive for dance is so powerful that I know in my heart I will always love dance as much as I love my family, dance does so much for me that I will never stop loving it.”

And then I get asked the most commonly asked question “What happens if you get injured?” I always give the same response, "Wait for it to heal, get my strength back, and start over, I realize that this will take a long time, will get frustrating at times, but I don't care, I will fight for what I love to do and what makes me happy. “Then they reply with, "What if it is serious enough that you will never dance again?" This question is a little more difficult to answer because honestly I don't know, if I could never dance again, I wouldn’t be myself, I wouldn’t be the same girl I am today without dance.

         If someone is a true dancer, they won’t be able to answer the question “What happens if you can never dance again?” because they will never find something they love as much as dancing.

My Journey with Dance

Photo taken at my dance studio by my teacher.

A lot of people ask me, "Why did you start to dance in the first place?" I always have the same response, "I didn't choose dance, I was only two years old when I started, my mother thought it would be something fun for me to do, something i would enjoy."

Many people then ask me, "but why have you stayed with it all this time?" I don't hesitate when I get asked a question like this, it is a simple answer "I love it, always have and always will." You see, I have been doing a lot of different activities in my life. Many in which have come and gone. Dance has been with me my whole life. It is not one of those activities that I can just say I am done with. Giving up dance is not an option for me. It is something that I was born to do. Something that I love with all my heart. If I give up dance, I honestly would be lost in life. Dance is what I live for, what keeps me going through the good times, and the bad.

With all this said, all I can say is "I didn't choose dance, dance chose me."

                                                Photo taken on my phone at my competition.

The Different Styles of Dance

There are many different styles of dance around the world. There are styles anywhere from Ballet, to Hip-Hop, Tap to Flamenco. Each and every dance style is unique, special, and moving. Each dance, as I said in the previous blogs, there is a lot of emotion that goes into the dance.

You can tell a lot about a person by the style of dancing that they do. If someone dances very gracefully, and smooth and does a lot of fluid movements, that person is more likely to be a sweet, caring, loving human being. If they enjoy the hard hitting, popping, hip-hop style, that person is more likely to have a hard exterior with a story that they are holding inside, that they have a lot of emotion about. A story that means something to them.

Dancing is so diverse. There is a style out there for everyone who would like to dance.

Dance and Me

Dance is a major part of my life; it lets me get out emotions that I can’t describe in words. It is one way to put everything out there and not worry about what people will think. It is also a great way to get exercise but what is most important to me about dance, is the journey. I started dancing when I was 2 years old. I have grown physically, mentally and emotionally, and I have grown as a dancer, as I look back it is amazing how much dance has helped me through and taught me. Dance is more then a sport, it’s a way of life.

Whenever I need to get any strong emotions out, or emotions that I am scared to share with others, I dance. It is the one thing I can do without being judged. I can show my inner most thoughts and not worry about anything. There is a type of dance for every emotion that I am feeling. When I am angry or jealous, I do hip-hop, when I’m sad, I do contemporary, and when I am happy I do jazz.

Dance is what makes me, me.

The Feeling Behind The Movement

Every move in dance requires you to have feeling behind it. Every dance tells a specific story. The video I posted is a dance from the TV show, "So Tou Think You Can Dance," as you can tell, it is a very emotional piece, that has an emotional story/message behind it. The story that I see in this piece, is to lovers, whose love is broken, however the man is fighting for his one true love when the woman is losing faith.

If you dance with no emotion, there is no point, every dance has something more to it then just moving your body. That is one of the main reasons not everybody can be an amazing dancer, because they don't feel the movements, they just perform the movements to the best of their ability. They think having no emotion is alright, when emotion is what makes the piece so remarkable.

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