Nothing left for me to do but dance

I started dancing at a young age - 4 to be exact.  I started with Ballet, and Tap.  I loved dancing, and fondly remember how fun those tap shoes were to walk around in, and how many awesome marks they made on the bathroom linoleum in the basement.  Unfortunately, I was recovering from a serious illness at the time, that took everything out of me, and I was too weak to continue with dance, so I had to quit after one year.

Fast forward to Grade 6, I found my dancing shoes again in Gym class in the form of line dances, (some of you may be familiar with Boot Scootin' Boogie), and I fell in love with it all over again!  From there it was "Gettin Jiggy wit it", followed by Waltz, Jive, Fox Trot, and all of the other dances the public school curriculum taught us.

By Grade 10 I was hooked, I loved dance!  I love it so much that I was constantly teaching others their parts (truth be told, I can Jive like a man better than I can playing the part of the woman) as well as learning my own.  And when it came time to pick classes, Dance was definitely on my list.  Plus it looked really good on my transcript to point out the 98 in dance, and 97 in Drama, and avoid talking about the 55 in Math...

In my high school we worked off the Copernicus system, meaning we had 2 classes a day for 3 hours a day - 10 weeks of the year.  Then we wrote a final, and moved on to another 2 classes for 10 weeks.  It had it's good and bad points - for one, it meant that if you did Math in your first quarter in Grade 11, and then didn't have it again until your 4th quarter in grade 12 - you wouldn't have done any math for a year and a half - rather than 2 months with a normal system, which made remembering difficult.  The good part was that studying math for 3 hours a day, and then doing a final after 10 weeks - rather than doing a final in June and trying to remember something you learned in September kept things fresh in your mind. 

My favorite quarter was always Dance and English - 3 hours of Dance in the morning - followed by Dance Club at lunch time, then 3 hours of English, and another 2 hours of Dance Club after school - SO MUCH DANCE!!  In Dance Club we worked toward our yearly tour to Salmon Arm, where we got to tour around and perform for elementary and junior high schools.  Having a group of little girls run up to get your autograph after a show is one of the best feelings - ever.  Plus our dance group was like a family in so many ways - when you are dependent on someone to lift you up in a ballet number, or dip you and toss you in a jive number, you tend to trust them.  And being one of the strongest girls in class (and in some cases even stronger than some of the boys) I was always the male part, and thus I was doing the throwing and catching.

After high school I took a hip hop class through the University, and then hit a lull...  From 2003-2009 there was no dancing in my life (apart from the odd "girls night out"), and I missed it greatly.  Which is why I was thrilled when Erik asked me to be a part of his Birthday Video as one of his back up dancers!  I was nervous because I hadn't danced in years, but excited to be given the chance again!

The Video was awesome, and so much fun, and it made me realize how much I missed dancing.  So I decided that come the new year, I was going to sign up for dance classes with J'Adore Dance - the studio Erik goes to.  I went to a trial Fit Hop class, and decided that was the class for me - but wait!  I was also asked to do make-up for J'Adore Dance's Naughty Hottie Night, which included a mini Naughty Hottie Dance class - and suddenly my schedule went from one class to two.  I signed up for both, but just recently watched the end of Salsa Burn...  hmmm

I think I need to save up for a Dance Pass for next semester... I see much Dancing in my future!

Grade 12 Dance club