why walk when you could dance?
So depending on how long you’ve been around, you may or may not know I used to be a dancer. While I didn’t start taking classes until I was 16 pretty late to the game I was always dancing around when I was little. Flash forward to July 2018 when I walked across the stage of the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank to receive my degree in Dance Studies. That’s right, in 5 years I went from never taking a ballet class in my life to being a BA Hons Dance Studies graduate.
During my first couple of years of dancing I would spend all day at collage (8:30am – 5:00pm) studying dance and theatre) and then head down to my dance school where I’d take a mixture of ballet, modern and tap class from 6pm until 9:30pm most days. I think my only days off where Saturday and Sunday…as long as we didn’t have a show that is! My life revolved around dance, I spent more time with my dance teacher than I did my own mum. The students and parents at the dance school became my extended family. Even now I can walk back into the school and be welcomed with open arms. I owe a lot to the people at my dance school, they were my rock while my mum was fighting cancer and my cheerleaders when I was apply for university.
Now I just need to hurry up and pass my driving test so I can see them all again!
Since it’s been almost a year since my last dance class, I thought I’d share with you 5 things I miss most about dancing.
1. The Chaos
When you’re a dancer there’s always something coming up – be it a show, an exam or a competition you’re always preparing for something. Which means you’re constantly trying to push yourself to be better and better, I knew I wanted to study dance at uni which is why I would spend a minimum of 8 hours a day dancing – I had a a late start and needed to catch up. I remember one of my last shows at college I was helping to put everyone’s hair in a bun and the curtain was already up, and I hadn’t even done my own hair yet! Cue mad panic of by dance teacher doing my hair while I’m slapping on super dramatic stage makeup – but I made it to stage in perfect time.
2. The Escape
While it is a chaotic life, as soon as you step foot into the studio or onto the stage nothing else matters. Any stress I had just melted away – the day I found out my mum had cancer I insisted on going to my classes and for one moment I could forget about it. Dance helped me to forget all the bullying I’d suffered throughout school. Dance was just the perfect way to forget about everything for just an hour or two!
3. Costumes & Makeup
Is there such thing as too many rhinestones or too much contour? Not when you’re on stage. I got to wear such a large selection of costumes from sassy catsuits, too tight unitards that showed all the water you downed, tutus that make you feel like a fairy and gorgeous lyrical dress that just make you want to prance and twirl around. Now I don’t get the chance to dress up and slap on a full face of makeup very often – I even spending hours sorting out all the costumes ready for upcoming shows…I spent hours hunting in the costume cupboards.
4. The Choreography
I miss actual choreography, while at uni we did more ‘exercises’ opposed to full pieces of choreography and I miss getting sick of a piece of music because I’ve heard it 15 times already that morning. To this day I still remember a lot of the choreography I learned between the age of 16 and 18. Muscle memory is a magically thing and I have to resist dancing when I hear an old song…but I do still walk around the shops tap dancing from time to time. Or if I stood in the kitchen waiting for something to cook.
5. Being Flexible
I grew up doing gymnastics, then trampolining and then dance so I’d always been flexible…now it’s been months since I last stretched and while I can still do the splits just about, I can’t get my kicks anywhere as high and my turn out has seriously declined…and let’s not even talk about how appalling my arches are now. Safe to say I need to get back into the habit of stretching again, just so that my muscles don’t completely seize up.
So while I have been out of dance for a while, I do fully intend to re-ignite my passion for it and get back into classes…although probably not quite as many as I once did. Are there any hobbies you had that you just lost contact with?
PHOTOGRAPHY
All photos within this post were taken by Alex on my Olympus Pen E-PL7 with 45mm lens in natural lighting. They were then edited on Lightroom CC.
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