Have you ever had a hobby you once really enjoyed but had given up?
Throw back to a six year old me. I once took ballet classes and I LOVED them. I had made a lot of friends there, all of which I can no longer remember (funny thing I found out recently that my brother's girlfriend had in fact gone to the same school and may have been in my class! My good friend, Alesandrina, had also gone to the same school but we think she may have started after me and in a different class at the time). I left because I was simple bored. It's strange to think back on: 'A six year old me being bored of playing ballet games and actually wanting to learn more than what the teacher was teaching us'. That is the reason I left.
Going throughout school I hadn't picked it back up. I have always loved dance in general and continued to hold a love for it throughout my teenage years. During secondary school there were different dance groups held during lunch times we could sign up for. If I remember correctly I joined anything to do with danicng: Dance Mats, Zumba, Hip-Hop, Body-popping.
I also remember feeling the effect of quitting ballet all those years ago. I really missed dancing and when I become friends with Alesandrina in school and a few other friends and people I knew were in the same class I felt the desire to dance again. I didn't follow those desires though and just continued on with Street dance in school.
During those years where I joined those dance groups, we competed in three competitions of sorts. The first was the body-popping. It was a friendly competition of sorts (another funny fact: One of my friends from Childcare was at the same competition!) were schools in Ceredigion all competed with their hip-hop/street style dances.
The next was with the Zumba group. It was more of a showcase than a competition if I remember correctly and a few different groups from different schools all came together to show off their Zumba routines.
The one I remember the most is the Street group where we competed competitively with different schools in Ceredigion once again. We were all so excited because we had a really strong routine and our teacher was pretty confident in us that we could pull it off without a hitch. After everyone completed their routines we were judged. We were really upset with the results. We would have been happy with what ever place we came, don't get me wrong. Saying that, our dance teacher revealed on the bus home that she had talked to the judges, asking for feedback on how to improve our ability. She had explain we had come second (which is great!) but we would have come in first place if we had not worn the masks with were using during the dance (which is not so great).
She wasn't happy that they had judged us on something that wasn't our dancing ability. The judges had told her that they wanted to see more emotions in our faces during the routine. Although we were annoyed with this fact, we were still happy because we had all been doing what we loved - dancing.
Since leaving school I had not had the opportunity to join any dancing group or class. Until recently. I'm now in my third year of college in Aberystwyth, no longer studying childcare and the teacher from my last street dance group has set up adult dance classes. Although it is back in my old town, an hour and three quarters journey on the bus from college, I knew I had to take that opportunity. I have been attending her classes now since Septemeber 2016 and I cannot express how much I love dancing again. We have gone through Tap, Jazz, Street and Ballet. Starting out one a week until December and now twice a week.
I am so glad to have had the opportunity to get back into dance, especially ballet. I may have waffled on but the whole point I had for this blog post was to share with you my story. How I gave up something I loved because I was impatient. Don't give up on something you really love only to regret it later. Keep on going.
A Wanderlust Being.
