How I Fell In Love with Dance
i still remember
at 3 i anxiously slipped on this pair of
belly shoes
and attended my very first ballet class
at 5 i carelessly stumbled towards the
judge to collect this trophy right here
my very first dance award and at nine
my ballerina dreams finally came true
and i wore this tutu right here and did
my very first ballet solo
at 15 i still fall in love and am fully
captivated by this beautiful art form
dance ever since i was little
i have been taking dance classes ranging
from ballet
jazz contemporary and modern dance
i still remember my pure excitement of
going to dance class
and watching my dance seniors or as i
call them dances
dance and i remember feeling so in all
of them
that was when i knew that i wanted to be
just like them
graceful charismatic and expressive
when i first set foot on the big stage i
was only 5
dancing for my studios anno dance
concert
and today i don’t remember what i wore
what song i danced to or what the
choreography was
but what i do remember is the
unexplainable adrenaline
i felt waiting in the wings and when i
actually stepped on that stage
while everything just hit me all at once
the blurry faces of the audience
the warmth of the colorful stage lights
my breath
the moments passing by it was the
liberating feeling of performing
the force and the power of movement
which empowers me
to this day for someone like me
who is pretty introverted and resolved
at times i struggle to put my thoughts
and feelings into words
and share them with others and that’s
why i choose incorporate dance in my
life
to let the voice of my soul come through
and to tell my stories to the world
through dance
for years i always wondered why i love
to dance
so much and competitive training made me
believe that it was due to my pursuit
for perfection
as well as the mastery associated with
dance
whenever i was preparing for competition
season the priority was always to
master the steps nail the choreography
ensure that the spacing is right
and being the perfectionist that i am
the technical perfection that i gained
from dance definitely gave me a certain
amount of satisfaction
but something still felt missing so i
started to question my mindset
why do i love to dance so much what is
it about dance
that i can’t help but feel so enthralled
by
was i missing the fact that feelings are
integral to the entire process of
dancing
this sudden realization was like a
wake-up call
that all this while i feel having the
misconception that feelings
are only an additional element and were
trained and rehearsed
when in fact the main character of an
item is not
the choreography neither is it the
technique
rather it is the story and the emotion
behind the entire item
i began to realize that whether or not i
was conscious of it
i was telling my own story to the world
through dance
this new idea was also further
reinforced by other dancers around me
in the past few years i’ve had the
amazing opportunity
and privilege to teach young dancers
while assisting my dance teacher
slowly and gradually i started opening
up to them
and voting on them as if they were my
little sisters
well there were days that they spat on
me and there were days where they were
even a little bit rude
but despite their cheekiness i still
looked forward to every single class i
had with them
it was like i was looking in the mirror
and teaching three-year-old live
i saw that same vigor and excitement for
dance
as well as the eagerness to show me and
my dance teacher the best moves
and their best splits that made me want
to teach them
and give them advice just like how i
would have spoken to my younger self
not only could i feel the deep keeners
to learn and dance
but i also felt the true power and force
of movement
though they lacked maturity in their
movements were not trained
and did not have flawless technique but
i could still
feel their deep happiness sadness
or even loneliness in ballet class
they were just being themselves without
fearing judgment
and was simply dancing their hearts out
in that moment i was completely flawed
our emotions are indeed inherently a
part of movement
whether or not we had intended to show
them
when i dance my hands my feet
my limbs they are the pants writing my
story for the world to see
it made me see the beauty of dance where
we can express so much
without needing to utter a single word
or rely on having stationery in hand
our bodies convey the story of us every
single day of our lives
and there is just no way to completely
hide how we feel
the subtleties of body language express
the innate emotions
and subconscious thoughts that we may
endeavor to keep to ourselves
and what makes dance so beautiful is its
potential to mute signification
just as it is true of other art forms
when i dance
i just feel like i’m letting my
individuality shine through
and that is why dance is so special to
me
to me the soul is an impressive force
and it can have something really
extraordinary to share
that cannot be conveyed to the
limitations of mere words and sentences
and that’s why language cannot capture
what’s outside itself
the in-depth or intensive reality that
lies behind its scope
at times like this when we are stuck and
have no way to express the innate
emotions and complex emotions that we
are experiencing
that is when dance comes into the
picture and allows the soul to speak
through the body
we all already have the key and all we
have to do
is to find that door to unlock this new
mode of communication that we all
possess
recently i also found out that the term
emotion
is derived from the latin term immovata
which means to move isn’t that so
crazy the fact that the essence of
emotion
is moving and that’s exactly what we do
in dance
making that moving movement making the
emotion dance
and if there’s one thing that i hope i
helped you to realize
i hope it is the fact that our emotions
aren’t just
are physically embodied and exemplified
by our everyday movements
by understanding the connection between
our emotions
and our body in motion we can begin
producing more genuine
and more mature movements do not
underestimate the power of your body
every moment every instant we are
telling our individual stories
and conveying our innate emotions when
words fail to articulate
and convey thank you