Dancing My Way Through Life

So I think I told you back on my blog post here, about how I wanted to take a dance class again.

Well, I’m going to take a class on Wednesday. I’m super excited as I really miss dancing. I dance in the kitchen all the time – around the kids. And they laugh and sometimes tell me to stop.

I believe it was around 3rd grade I started a gymnastics class. I loved being able to learn how to do some of the tricks that gymnasts do. However, after my 2nd year of doing that, I decided to switch to dance, and started a jazz class. I fell in love instantly. I loved being able to move around to music and express myself. It wasn’t long until I started to also take ballet and tap. And then before I knew it, I was in the junior dance company. And then in the senior dance company. I was taking jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. I was at the studio a couple nights a week for sometimes up to 3-4 hours. I even did a couple solos a few years. One or two of them were lyrical and there were a couple jazz ones as well. I am not using nearly enough words as I could to describe how dance made me feel. It was my outlet. It was where I would go when I needed to let out some steam. It was where I would go when I was sad. It was where I would go when I was happy. Dance was my home. Dance was my way of being me. As mentioned before, it’s how I would express myself. I felt that dancing was who I was going to be. I wanted to be a professional dancer.

Soon, the dance studio where I was closed, and I was only dancing at school. It was not the same, but it kept me going. Then came time for college. I pretty much-made part of my decision based on if they had a dance program. I wanted to continue because I knew how it made me feel. I did go to a college where dance was offered. I took classes and joined their dance company. We would have class every Wednesday night. And then during performance week, we had rehearsals every night leading up to the show. At one point I thought I wanted to choreograph. But very quickly I realized my heart wasn’t in being the choreographer, but in the dancing. So I continued dancing with the company until during Junior year, I somehow injured myself. It was my knee. When I went to get it checked out, the doctor couldn’t really tell me what was wrong, just to rest it and take it easy. And because I didn’t want to seriously injure myself, I listened. But I thought that I couldn’t really dance anymore. It bothered me more so during certain things and I just said, well, I won’t dance anymore. I was bummed. And I think I thought I lost a bit of myself at that point. I didn’t know who I was if I wasn’t dancing.

But a couple years after graduating college, I was able to re-connect with my old studio (she has a studio in the city) and she was having a 25th anniversary show. She invited all her past dancers to perform in the show. I jumped at the opportunity because I wanted to see if I could dance again. Well, I didn’t nail it, that’s for sure, but I did a pretty good job if I say so. I mean, I was definitely out of shape and worked really hard, but I did it. And my knee still hurt.

I went back to the doctors about my knee and we did some x-rays and maybe an MRI, I don’t really remember. But he found a slight tear in my meniscus. So I opted for the arthroscopic surgery. It went well, but he said he saw a soft spot on my bone. I was a little thrown. What does a soft spot mean? Well, if you think of a rotten apple, there is a spot like that on my bone. What?! That’s crazy! So I asked if it would heal on its own. The doctor told me it could heal on its own. He said it may or may not heal. And I was again thrown. There really wasn’t a clear answer. So, I again decided to just take it easy. But being as I was also so active (I also played soccer for about 10 years, started dance at some point during that time), I wanted to continue being active.  I eventually started an exercise routine a bit and at some point, I saw a personal trainer. This personal trainer told me to do strength training with my knees. So do those squats and lunges. They will only make all the muscles stronger. So I did. And you know what, as long as I rest and ice if needed, I’ve been doing well the past few years.

So, I am beyond excited to try a jazz dance class this week. And I can’t wait to tell you about my experience. It’s going to be so much fun and yet probably one of the hardest things I’ve done in a while. Am I still going to love it? Will I want to continue?

Is there something you haven’t done in years that you want to try to do? Tell me about it!!