Appreciating Dance


When I started to dance, dancing to me was nothing but a hobby. I never considered myself athletic, because dancing, to me, was not a sport. I went on a routine schedule of trying my hardest to keep up with the other girls, putting on the makeup, the tights, and the skirt and did what I was told to do when I was told to do it. I considered myself average, but definitely nothing special.
When I started getting older, I noticed that the girls in classes above me had muscular bodies similar to the girls that played sports at school. As my love for dance began to grow, my mom took me to a show in New York City called Swan Lake. When the theater began to darken, the audience became very silent and a small girl opened the show. Though she never said a word, every emotion that the audience was meant to feel was expressed through the way she moved. Everything about the performance was pure magic. As I sat in the theater, I wanted more than anything in the world to be that girl on that stage, moving the way she did. I left the performance with a completely different outlook on dance.
After the performance, I started becoming more intrigued with ballet. Famous people such as Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare and Friedrich Nietzsche called dancing one of the most gorgeous and free ways to express art there was. I then realized that though I never picked up a guitar or a paintbrush, hadn’t kicked a soccer ball or thrown a ball, what I was doing was in fact one of the most amazing form of art in the world.
Today, I spend hours doing what I love, and escaping from every day stresses such as school, work, and family through dancing. Whenever I have had a difficult day I spend time at the studio putting in hard work and hours of training creating something beautiful and meaningful. Appreciating dancing has taught me that every single talent or skill that people possess deserves appreciation. I have the ability to show people that art forms such as dancing, painting and music can provide an escape from every day life and help to eliminate stress and pressure. I also want to show people that they should embrace what makes them unique and teach them that they can use the activities they love as an escape from their worries. I know that when I get stressed out the only way to get away from that is to do something artistic. I believe that if these methods are able to help me, they should be able to help other people as well.