Carpe Ballo

Gratitude Challenge - Week 14 - A Talent You Have

Seize the dance.

Music just begs to be danced to. I am so thankful for all the opportunities and lessons dance brings to my life. I am looking forward to dancing in college, and hopefully as a career. It is a beautifully intricate art form, and I would not trade it for the world.

My journey with dance began at age three. As a child, my eyesight was so poor, I could barely function. Sports were out of the question; I could not catch a ball if I never even saw it in the first place. An act of desperation, my mom enrolled me in my first ballet class. I refused to even go in the studio on the first day. I vividly remember my three-year-old self and her fears. Somehow, my mom coaxed me into attending my second class, and since then, I have not stopped.

Fifteen years later, I have performed in three productions of The Nutcracker (I am currently working on my fourth) and countless recitals. I have danced in four summer intensives and participated in the Boulder Jazz Weekend Workshop at the University of Colorado. I danced at the grand opening of H&M in Denver, and I have performed various spontaneous dances at malls, parades, and fairs.

To dance is to be peaceful. It is the only activity that full consumes all of my senses. I cannot do anything else when I dance, but dance. I learned how to endure pain, for it is temporary. Dancing forces me to live in the moment, and take it all in. What a gift it is to be able to do these glorious things with my own body. I am so thankful for every minute of dancing, and I hope, no matter how old I become, that I will never stop.

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself" ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov