Why I Teach…
I have danced for many years and in many places.
Hopewell, Petersburg, Richmond, Colonial Heights, Norfolk, and many different areas of the state of Virginia.
Dance has been a part of me since I was a little girl. My parents put me into dance classes after one summer when we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and was asked to get on stage with the dancers and perform the “chicken dance”.
At that moment my parents thought, “Hey she might enjoy this”. And boy did I!
My first dance class was a ballet and tap combo class at a little studio in Hopewell (which flash to the future and my dance studio is now in the same building). I really wanted to actually take Irish Softshoe since I loved watching them at Busch Gardens and Celtic Fire, but to take Irish Softshoe I had to take a year of ballet and tap first.
The year went by and I got my first pair of Irish Softshoes! I loved dancing Irish Softshoe and later down the road even took Irish Hardshoe.
I danced many different styles growing up; tap, Irish softshoe and hardshoe, jazz, modern, lyrical, ballroom, clogging, acro, but my all time love was ballet.
I loved the grace and beauty of ballet, I loved being able to dance on pointe. I loved the stories that we danced too, the music, the speed of the allegro, and the control of the adagio. I even took French through High School so I could understand the terminology even clearer for dance.
I can still remember my first ever ballet dance. It was to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and I can still remember doing a little bourree turn with my arms in 5th en haut everytime Miss Potts sang the words “Beauty and the Beast”.
I loved dancing, and as I grew older I realized I loved helping others learn steps and different combos. I trained myself to remember choreography quickly and could remember years after actually dancing the steps.
I tried choreographing and realized I loved that as well.
Once I had graduated high school and was dancing pre-professionally I realized that the joy I felt dancing was still there, but I didn’t want to be the one doing it any more. I wanted to be the one to share that joy with others, get the “light bulb” effect from them when they learned to do a step, to help others grow in their understanding of dance history and origin.
I wanted to be a teacher.
Even though I had been an assistant teacher many times over the years I took a step farther and got my certification with the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum.
I then started teaching at the Richmond Ballet and enjoyed teaching, but still felt something wasn’t right.
I used to joke with my friends at dance that when I grew up I wanted to own a dance studio where we taught all different styles of dance and eventually opened a boarding school with it and we would help people who weren’t offered classical ballet and dance training a place that they could come and learn the art.
I finally figured out what I was meant to do.
I went and opened my own dance school, started teaching classical dance training, have been helping grow the community with the students we have been bringing in from all over.
I have finally found what I was supposed to be doing.
Touching peoples lives with the joy of dance and carrying on the knowledge of dance history.
I owe my journey to my parents who started me on this path (never realizing the wormhole they were creating ;) ), all my teachers over the years who transformed me into who I am today, and for the people in my community or Prince George and Hopewell VA for helping make this dream a reality.
Keep dancing my friend, it’s never a bad thing!
Comments