Dear Sanna - Deja vu... again?

Once again, my thoughts seemed familiar, and sure enough, I have laid out the reasons I dance. This is from a post of mine last year:

It would be impossible to explain all the reasons I dance, but I'll try my best...

First of all, I love the challenge. There is always something more to strive for. Your training is really never done, and it's exciting and fun to be constantly improving and being able to do more and more. It's fun to jump higher and do more turns! I love seeing my progress over time and having the ability to literally change my body.

I also love the order ballet gives my life. I look forward to a regimented class every day. I like the level of respect that isn't necessarily a part of everyday life for most people.

Performing is also one of the reasons I dance. Being on stage gives me a thrill unlike anything else. I especially love getting the opportunity to dance many shows where I can become familiar enough with a role to have fun with it and really dance to my full potential. It's nice to know the steps well enough to stop thinking about the steps and focus on my technique and performance quality.

When I'm not dancing my body just doesn't feel right. Even a few days off makes me feel stiff and lazy. It's nice to have a career/hobby that also keeps you in shape.

But then I'm missing the sort of inexplainable thing that makes me love ballet itself. I don't really know why I think doing plies and tendus every day is so much fun. Or why I think a foot can be beautiful or somebody twisting their body into abnormal shapes. My mom used to ask me in wonder all the time why I wanted to go to class every day, even when I wasn't performing. I just like it. I like the people involved in the ballet world (for the most part) and that sort of inside joke if you will that only ballerinas share. For some reason we all just seem to get each other and I love being part of a worldwide network like that. I feel special being involved with ballet and I don't think I will ever be happy unless ballet is a part of my life, whether or not I make it as a professional.

All of this is still true. Just today I was grumbling in the back of a very crowded class at a difficult combination, when I watched somebody do a step and had a mini epiphany. (That looks like fun!) Ballet is fun, simple as that. I wanted to do the pirouette and land in a different position and turn and twist into something else to this beautiful music we so often take for granted JUST because it's fun and for no other reason. That's why I love dance.

Janie