Dancing on The Beach

So,

for my Dance Improvisation Workshop, my teacher thought it would be a fun idea to dance on the pier and on the beach in front of the WHOLE WORLD. I thought she was nuts and that it would be super weird to dance in the middle of the promenade with tourists and beach goers ogling at us, but I have to admit - it was a lot of fun.

We put on quite a show, randomly moving through the crowd, interacting with each other and pairing up into partnerships halfway through the dance as if we'd read each others minds. Everything that we did was improvised, which was amazing. We danced on the pier and on the sand and it was pretty much a perfect day to be outside doing exactly what we were doing.

We have a four minute performance in the school show on Tuesday, which will be my first dance show since junior high.

The dance shows I used to be a part of in junior high were cringe worthy - not because the dances were bad, but because I was so bad in them. I have always had two left feet. I do not know how to move my body gracefully and have often been told that I am very stiff with my movements. The only dancing I can do is Salsa dancing because I'm good with hip movements.

In fact, now that I'm here, flashing back to junior high, I can't help but think about that one time we had an inter-school dance competition that our school hadn't won in years. I was a member of a school club called the Interact Club, which is why I ended up being a part of the dance in the first place. The club did all sorts of fun things like plays and dances as well as things for charities like donations and volunteering. Since our school decided to enter the dance competition at the last minute, anyone who volunteered from the club was put into the dance troupe.

Rehearsals were a little cringe worthy since the choreographer kept giving me the evil eye, but other than that, I think I did pretty okay. I didn't trip over my own feet or anything.

The day before the competition, I went out an bought the costume for the dance. The next day, we all went to another school where the competition was being held.

Upon arriving at the school, however, I was told my one of my professors that I had been "removed from the dance because I was a bad dancer". This, after I had bought an outfit and traveled all the way to the other side of town with the rest of the dancers. My little 13 year old brain could not comprehend what had happened and I spent most of the afternoon crying in a random bathroom stall.

Later, the teacher who threw the thirteen year old child out of an inter-school event got fired. I'm not sure if it was due to my mothers complaint letter to the principal, or due to the eight other complaint letters that this particular teacher had received against her, but she didn't even complete the semester.

After that incident, I didn't dance again until now. Taking this class has been a lot of fun and I'm glad I chose to dance because I feel like I've gotten over my fears from junior high. I mean, at the end of the day, who care's if I'm not a great dancer? At least I'm not afraid to have fun and make a fool of myself.