A Dance Legacy

I certainly don't mean to make it sound like I've come from a long line of professional dancers, but Nola's dance recital this past weekend has caused me to reflect on my dance background. Dance has meant a lot to me and played a significant role in my upbringing. And now, I get to watch my daughter learn to dance and perform on stage! It does something to my heart that I don't know if I could explain!

This is my sweet Nola with her dance class:

             

(Nola is in the pink on the left side.)

And this is me with my dance class (back in the 80's, ahem...) :

(I'm in the middle row on the right.)

I was a little girl enthralled with beauty, so when it came time to learn basketball and kickball in grade school, I didn't like it. It didn't take long for me to realize I hated sports. I was terrible at it and I didn't care to get better. There was nothing pretty or elegant about sports, as far as I could see, and I wanted a life of beauty. So sports just became something I sort of tolerated when I was little. 

Thankfully my mother enrolled me in ballet when I was very young. I took to it right away because it was beautiful. 

        

Ballet rescued me from the insecurity that all the other sports had left me with because it was something I was good at. I believe ballet taught me grace and balance as well as good posture. Because of this, it was important to me that I enroll my daughter in ballet, as well. This is her in her class this past winter:

       

(She's in the pale pink leotard and tights. I'm not sure what they're learning here... Pique turns maybe?)

I really like her teacher. She's a young girl but I could tell right away that she had been well-bred. Even though I hadn't seen her dance full-out, I could tell by her feet. (You can always tell a well-trained dancer by their feet.)

She choreographed and taught the girls a routine. Little by little I watched them learn it and grow in it. Week after week I watched them practice. This picture is the day they saw their costumes for the first time and got to try them on:

      

I can remember being told by my dad and my aunts that their mother, my grandmother, was in ballet as a child, too. I was fascinated by this thought but she died when I was only five so I never got to ask her about it. I'm sure my aunts have photos and information that I don't have. All I have to my name is this one single photograph of my grandmother, Shirley, when she was ten years-old:

     

Isn't she adorable?!!! This photo is in an antique frame and sits on a dresser in my daughters' bedroom:

     

     

As I reflect back on why dance was important to me, I can recall a time in my teen years when I really took off with it and it became a passion. 

I was attending a private high school and was trying to find my niche. Other than music, there was nothing that I was good at. I played volleyball for a while because I could be with my friends, but I never liked it. My dad told me that I had the body type to be a runner so I tried track for a while, too. But my strong aversion to sports came out once again, and I quickly grew weary of it. 

One day at school I overheard two of my friends talking about getting a group of girls together to start a Dance Team. They asked me if I would be interested in joining them. At that point our school had never had a Dance Team before. I was beyond excited!

I danced with a group of about seven or eight girls my junior year and had a blast, but that summer my parents moved. I transferred to a public school for my senior year. The school had a Pom Squad that I was enamored with! It was double the size of what I was used to at my previous school, and I was captivated by the advanced level at which they danced.

"I bet if I practiced really hard, I could dance like that." I thought to myself. "Oh, what an honor it would be to be able to dance with these girls!" I can remember thinking. 

"If you want to dance on the team, figure out what you have to do to make it happen." My parents told me. So I made a few phone calls and found out the name of the coach. I remember looking her up in the phone book (because this was the 90's, haha) and talking with her husband over the phone. He told me she wasn't home and that she was at the school in dance practice. I got in my car and drove to school to look for her and talk with her. (No cells phones because this was the 90's! ) Sure enough, I found her in dance practice and asked for a try-out. She told me that try-outs were over and that the team was already established. I left feeling defeated.

It felt awful to know that it was my last year of high school and I couldn't dance. 

But a couple of months into the school year, something had happened and the team lost a dancer. The school was in a tissy and there were a ton of girls coveting that one open spot. 

Brenda, the head coach, called me personally and offered me a try-out. When I met with her to try out, I remember her telling me that several girls were upset with her and wondering why she would offer me, the new girl, the try-out over them. She told them it was because I was the only girl who came to her, months before, and met with her, face to face.

Now that I'm an adult and looking back on this, it is impressive and appreciated when a child or teen can approach an adult with respect, look them in the eye, and have a mature conversation. 

I made the team, and finished out the school year dancing with a group of girls that became my friends. I have such good memories of high school and one of the main reasons is because of the Dance Teams I got to be a part of!

(Can we please not talk about my hair! I have no idea why it looks like this!!! Haha)

After I graduated high school, I was contacted by the private school I had attended before I transferred. Their Dance coach had moved on and the team needed a replacement. After an interview, they offered me the job as head coach. 

I spent one year coaching this high school Dance Team:

I was only nineteen here.

I loved each of these girls and had the time of my life coaching them, teaching them, and choreographing for them. It was an extremely fun year. They had asked me to return but by the following year I had begun Beauty School full-time. These girls deserved a coach that could commit to them full-time, and I knew I couldn't do that going to school. 

The next few years I would continue to dance ballet at the studio I grew up in, but by the time I was in my early twenties, my career was taking off and dance fell to the way-side. 

I've never returned to ballet, and at this point in my life I probably never will. But I now get to pass the baton to the next generation...

         

And with great joy I get to watch my daughter on stage:

         

She's so young and new at this that I don't know yet if she'll fall in love with it like I did. But I feel like it's my responsibility to at least expose her and get her started in ballet in case she wants to pursue it in her future. 

Micah asked me a couple of years ago, "What are you going to do if Nola doesn't want to become a dancer?" I've always known what I'll do... I will support her in whatever passions she wants to pursue. 

She is not me. She is her own person with her own ideas and talents. Her passions and dreams may not be what mine have been or even what I would want for her. But I will always support her and encourage her to live her life how she wants. 

I feel that way about all of my children:

         

I pray over their little heads at night:

Dear Lord, give them hearts that want to serve You and let their lives glorify You! Give them good and happy lives, and make me a good mama for them. -Amen

Thanks for reading A Dance Legacy my friends! 

          

I'll be back soon...

~ Courtney