New Beginnings
Dance. It has been my passion since the age of 6. My Mum took me to see Giselle around that time and I remember looking up at her with wide eyes and told her " I am going to do that one day". Sure enough, ever since I was obsessed with ballet and it was my delight to begin classes. Most girls were outside playing in dirt, or chasing puppies I was in the basement dance studio my parents made; I would spend hours in there practicing dance and coming up with my own numbers. It became a part of me ever since and in my mind I knew; I knew that there would be two loves in my life: whomever I decided upon as a partner and dance.
Flash forward dance is still a huge part of my life. Even after my car accident and made the decision to go back to dancing. It has been the one thing in my life that has been constant. So yes, one could say that dance is important to me and always will be.
The past couple years I decided to try burlesque because I love dancing and love entertaining people. Few know my true story with burlesque but it opened my eyes to the world and the performance world. Don't get me wrong, I still have so much respect for the burlesque ladies but what this all has taught me: I am not a burlesque dancer...I am just a dancer. My vision of what dance is and should be is entirely different than what most burlesque performers and troupes expect.
Who knows, maybe there is a different way to approach the two yet no, I don't belong in the burlesque world. That is perfectly okay and I accept that I always accepted it. What was worst in the situation was that I was selling myself short and remember getting upset when one of my best friends told me "Why are you even performing burlesque"? "You need to be doing ballet or modern that isn't you". She literally told me those words. Yes, I was upset at first because burlesque to a small extent will be a part of me-it's grown with me for the last two years.
Bottom line the story is: be true to yourself and what you believe in. Don't allow others to sell you short of your potential. For two years I allowed people to tell me what I was or wasn't instead of just listening to that artist living inside of me. I'm not saying I am better than any burlesque performer because I am not...it just isn't my world. I think it was because I felt like an outsider and hoped it would be a world I would fit into. Even with that...it just wasn't me.
So next month I have a chance to do what I was trained and used to performing arts, modern dance. My Mum always said she saw me as a modern dancer one day on stage performing.
Boy, was she right.
Flash forward dance is still a huge part of my life. Even after my car accident and made the decision to go back to dancing. It has been the one thing in my life that has been constant. So yes, one could say that dance is important to me and always will be.
The past couple years I decided to try burlesque because I love dancing and love entertaining people. Few know my true story with burlesque but it opened my eyes to the world and the performance world. Don't get me wrong, I still have so much respect for the burlesque ladies but what this all has taught me: I am not a burlesque dancer...I am just a dancer. My vision of what dance is and should be is entirely different than what most burlesque performers and troupes expect.
Who knows, maybe there is a different way to approach the two yet no, I don't belong in the burlesque world. That is perfectly okay and I accept that I always accepted it. What was worst in the situation was that I was selling myself short and remember getting upset when one of my best friends told me "Why are you even performing burlesque"? "You need to be doing ballet or modern that isn't you". She literally told me those words. Yes, I was upset at first because burlesque to a small extent will be a part of me-it's grown with me for the last two years.
Bottom line the story is: be true to yourself and what you believe in. Don't allow others to sell you short of your potential. For two years I allowed people to tell me what I was or wasn't instead of just listening to that artist living inside of me. I'm not saying I am better than any burlesque performer because I am not...it just isn't my world. I think it was because I felt like an outsider and hoped it would be a world I would fit into. Even with that...it just wasn't me.
So next month I have a chance to do what I was trained and used to performing arts, modern dance. My Mum always said she saw me as a modern dancer one day on stage performing.
Boy, was she right.
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