Mothers – For signing you up for dance class for the first time. I have memories from when I was four-years-old that included dancing on the coffee table in the living room for my parents and their friends. It’s possible child services should’ve been called. But I’m fairly confident that I was not performing at striptease at four. It was obvious that I loved to dance, and that I enjoyed performing on some form of stage for others. Shortly thereafter, my parents signed me up for dance classes. My life was changed forever. I took jazz, tap, and musical theatre for many years, and loved every minute of it. Being one of the smallest kids in the class, I was always placed near the front and centre, which was just fine with me. Where I was shy with using my voice, my body had no issue whatsoever. I could follow choreography quickly and felt the music in every part of my body. It was as if the rest of the world disappeared, leaving just me and the music. I still feel this way today. Once the music starts to play, my mind completely shuts off, leaving all the stress and ‘to do’s’ of my day in a parking lot far away. I know they will be there once the class finishes. But for an hour and a half of that class, I am totally in my happy place and at peace. I’m not a backup dancer for J.Lo or Justin Timberlake, but I try to dance every day (these days to the soundtrack of Hamilton), feeling the music through my body and releasing all emotion through my arms, legs, feet and torso. Not only is dance fun. But it is also a form of emotional release.
Dance. Changed everything.
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