I took my first dance class in 2002, and the rest is history. From 2002 to 2017, I don’t think a week went by that I didn’t take a class at Shirley McPhail School of Dance. That dance studio was my safe place. It felt like all the things that brought me stress (classes, friends, boys, etc), couldn’t step foot on Mesa Drive.
That studio taught me more than just how to dance. I learned how to make lifelong that would make me laugh until it felt like I just did an ab workout. I learned how to take criticism like a champ; the first time my Russian ballet teacher told me I look like a football player as I chaine turned across the floor, I cried in class, and every time after that I knew she was just trying to turn me into the ballerina I was meant to be. I learned how to pronounce fancy French words, all about the history of tap and how to make my butt smile. But most importantly, I learned how to be myself.
When I graduated from high school and hit that final pose in my senior solo, I thought that was the end of my dance journey. 15 years of lessons, rehearsals and red lipstick, all over in the blink of an eye. I didn’t know what dance was going to look like for me in college. Ya wanna know a secret? During the Christmas break of my freshman year, I decided I wanted to be on my school’s pom team. So I went to a convention, started taking privates at my studio and even went to multiple tryout clinics at school. Ya wanna know another secret? After all that, I never tried out… I realized that I didn’t need to tease my hair, wear red lipstick and learn how to do a front headspring if I wanted to keep dance in my life.
Turns out there is a whole other side of dance, it’s slightly less glamorous, but just as rewarding. I have gotten to be a stage manager, a choreographer and have even been a substitute teacher a time or two. I may be old and retired, but now I get to help pass on the joy of dance to the next generation of primas. I would like to thank Shirley McPhail School of Dance for not only giving me my love of dance, but allowing me to keep loving dance. I may not know everything life has in store for me, but I know that dance will always be a part of the plan.