Dancing Queen

Once upon a time there was a little girl, who was rather clueless and awkward. She a had a beautiful, talented mother who really was worried about giving her daughter a chance at experiencing new and wonderful things.
This mother saw her little girl dancing in the backyard and watching "Great Performances" on PBS. The deal--She would became the ballet seamstress and her daughter would be enrolled in the Ballet Conservatory. And the rest is ancient "Independence-style- Nutcracker" history!

Yeah, yeah ok, enough of the sappy fairy tale writing. As you can tell-- young, awkward, clueless girl is--of course me. And my Mom??--- the fabulously, gifted seamstress (she once sewed my girls Snow White and Cinderella costumes by hand, with dental floss!).

Where am I going with this you might ask? Well I have rediscovered my love of dancing. As a kid I must admit I down played this interest. Perhaps it was embarrassing teasing from my relentless Samoan uncles and Grandpa (when they heard I was taking ballet my Grandpa said, "Bucky show us some of your moves." So as a good, obediant granddaughter I showed him some of my bar exercises. He and my uncles decided to throw in fart noices when ever I made any sort of bending movement--humiliating and lesson learned--never dance infront of family--potentially embarrassing incident may occur). Or maybe it was due to the fact that standing in front of a mirror as a an adolescent teen of "normal to larger" bone structure, in tights and a leotard next to preteen--let's face it sticks, was the real problem. But whatever the reasons were, the truth was that I really did enjoy ballet class and dancing like a crazed lunatic when ever no one was watching.

Case in point. Any one who drove past my place in Provo might have had quite a show. Cause when the kids went to bed I usually did the night time tidy up to my favorite Bollywood hits and danced around as if Gauri from Lagaan (usually with all lights on and bay window still uncovered). Pathetic and derranged, I know. Thankfully I've taken my freak show to the YMCA for some fine tuning in respectable, "real" dance classes. I am soooo LOVING it!

The nice thing about taking dance now is really three fold.
1. Half the class consists of senior citizens
Don't get me wrong. I am in no way saying that because many of them are older I by default look better. It's more along the lines of-- no one is trying to one up each other in class. They are taking it for the same reason I am, for the love of dance. Of course, not having to look at preteen sticks in leotards is an added bonus. Which brings me to part deux.

2. Not having to wear a leotard to class.
Ahh liberating. Let's face it, no one in their right mind wants to see me "'a la Madonna" prancing around on the dance floor with a glossy leotard and leg warmers. No! For me, wearing workout pants and a regular shirt does wonders for my dancing self esteem.

and

3. Variety.
I am taking ballet and jazz, latin dance, and belly dance. All are fun and I don't get overloaded with one genre and each is a great work out for different reasons. Plus having so much variety helps me remember I'm not trying to make it to Julliard, just trying to loosen up and have fun dancing--which I find is necessary for me.

So perhaps I'll keep an update of my dancing experiences. I've been doing the dance thing for a month now and have been enjoying every second of it!