My dance letter to you. (Day 10)

I’m writing a love song to whomever
Tends to look my way
I’m writing a love song to whomever
And this is what it says:

“Ba da ba bop be dop bop ba da
Be dop bop ba da be dop bop ba da”

-The Smoking Popes

Dearest Reader,

I’ve been given the task to write a post to my ideal reader, so I’m writing you this letter.  You see, you ARE my ideal reader.  Yes, that’s right… YOU.  Because… well, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be writing this thing in the first place.  There is a little,  selfish part of me that is using this writing as a way to express my creativity; however, I’m even more importantly writing because I know how tough it could be in this dance business (and many other arts-related careers, as well).  I know you are reading this, filled with creativity and passion for something, and not exactly sure if you are going the right direction.  I want to let you know, you are not alone.

In my journey so far, I have often felt helpless and alone.  It seemed that all my friends and family had “real jobs” and was I freak for not wanting to have a stable career path? I remember, in college, the first time I told my Dad I wanted to major in Dance.  He wasn’t surprised; in fact, he had seen it coming… I had been dancing around the house my whole life.  My parents have always been supportive of my dancing, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about what that would mean for my life.  He knew that I would face a lot of adversity and roadblocks with this career choice, but he also knew his daughter.  He knew that no matter what I did, I would succeed, because I had love and passion for what I was doing.

The admirable Conrad Hilton said, “Success seems to be connected with action.  Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but don’t quit.”  I feel that this has been my mantra through this whole process.  Some days, I have doubts and just want to quit. The inner voices start kicking in… you can’t ever be that good of a dancer, you’re not doing a good enough job with that student, you don’t have the ideal dancer figure, you’ll never be able to open a studio.  These thoughts will flicker across your brain like little lightning bolts when you are not having the best dance-day. These doubts are normal… every one has them at one point or another.  When this happens to me, I try to do what we call a “flip-flop”.  A flip-flop is when you turn a negative into a positive: for example, taking you can’t ever be that good of a dancer and turning it into you are a beautiful dancer, and you will only get better.  I’ll even take a moment to write down all of the negative thoughts that are passing through my mind, and then, on a separate sheet, I flip-flop all of those thoughts.  I’ll pin the new positive thoughts somewhere where I can see them, like on my fridge or mirror.  This serves as a reminder that nothing is as bad as it seems, it will always get better, because at the end of the day, I love dance. I love everything about it.  It has made me a better person.  It has helped me through the toughest of times and has brightened my best of times.  It is what I’m meant to do and what I’m meant to share.

And that, my dearest reader, is my dance letter to you.

Rhythmically yours,

amandaidance o-)-<