Dance

    I am seventeen years old and have been dancing since I was two.  For those of you too lazy to do the math yourself, that's fifteen years.  I perform in different genres of dance such as tap, ballet, pointe, hip hop, and jazz (not jazz, as in the jazz era).  I have performed in large groups, small groups, and as a soloist.  For the past six years, I have been dancing competitively.  In the fall, I will begin college where I will be pursuing a major in dance.  In case you still haven't figured it out, I am very passionate about dance.
    For me, dancing is so much more than an hour long class I attend after school to "keep me out of mischief", as my parents so fondly speak of my 13 hours of dance each week.  Dancing is my life - it's what I do, it's my verb (to answer the commercial's question of "What's your verb?")  Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night I lug a 5-pound bag (at least!) out the door to my car.  I drive down the street (my studio just moved and is literally, one minute down the street from my house) and get out of my car, lugging my bag upstairs to the dance room.  It's slightly absurd that I do this, considering I practice 4 out of 6 dances barefoot and even when they are performed, 3 out of 6 remain barefoot.  But the bag goes with me anyway, just in case out of spontenaity, we decide to practice pointe or tap.
    I am a part of a competitive dance team that consists of eleven other girls, beside myself.  When you watch dance movies, it seems like the dancers are family and you find it pretty unbelievable that they would all be that close.  Well I have two words for you - believe it.  My dance team is like my second family.  All the mothers are referred to as "Mom" or "Momma insert their first name here."  Occassionally, for change of pace it's, "Mrs. insert first name here."  I can't say we really call anyone "Dad", though.  The dad's all tend to stay home or in the audience (mainly because away from the audience is the changing area and well, they just aren't allowed back there.)  But with twelve Mom's, a dance teacher that's like a mom, and the dance teacher's mom, how much more help could you ask for?  But back to how we're like family -- we joke and fight five seconds later, but our fights never last and grudges are never held.  We always forgive each other and no matter how mean something one of us said is, it's always forgiven because we know that it was only said out of anger, not true nature.  This helps us to be better performers -- none of our drama goes on stage with us.  And we never use our performance time as the time to get revenge one someone else by screwing up and ruining medal standings for them.
    One of the things I find to be most strange about my dance team is that we tend to eat a lot.  If we weren't wearing our dance jackets every time we went out, you'd never know we were dancers.  We eat so much!  At competitions, you'll find us in a corner with 12 cheeseburgers, 12 10-pc chicken nuggets, and 12 sodas.  We bring grapes, crackers, and anything else easily accessible on stage with us at awards.  We go out to eat at 10:15 pm when our dance class lets out.  We eat ice cream Sundaes with extra chocolate syrup - and it will be the skinniest dancer that will add the most syrup.  We are always eating and I find it to be hilarious.
    Just like I find my team to be hilarious.  We're always laughing.  No matter what we're doing, we can guaruntee that within five minutes, we'll be laughing again.  One night at practice, my dance teacher told us to make sure every step could create a picture.  She turned on the music and with each step we took, all eight girls in the number (including myself) said "Click! Click!  Click!", imitating the sound of a camera as it takes a picture.  We were laughing too hard to even get through one minute of the dance.
    When people ask me why I dance, I just have to look at my dance team and tell them, "That's why."  The medals and awards are great and I do genuinely love to dance.  If I didn't honestly enjoy it, I wouldn't still be in it.  I love getting better and watching tapes of my performances and saying "Wow, I can do that."  or "Look, it's like I was flying for a minute!" when I see myself in a leap that's about a foot or two off the ground.  But without my dance team, I wouldn't have fun doing anything.  It'd be all work and no play.  Don't get me wrong, we know when to be serious and focus on practicing our routines, but without a little laughter, there'd be no enjoyment factor to it.
    To dance is one of the best things you can do.  You're excercising but you're having fun doing it.  You make great friends that you will remember the rest of your life.  And you make memories that will never leave you as long as you live.  My dance team and I have been invited to perform in Portugal this coming summer and 9 out of 12 of us will be leaving.  No doubt, the week we are in Portugal will be just as momentous and filled with laughter as every practice leading up to it.

-Nichole Elise*

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