Journal 13: The Final Bow

This week on Wednesday May 17th was a monumental day in my dance career. This day was my last dance recital. Throughout my past few years of dance I’ve been dreading this day, knowing it was bound to happen in my senior year. And here it is.. When my mom woke me up I could see the tears in her eyes as she was apart of my dance journey just as much as I was. From the young age of 2 years old she was my number one supporter at every competition, practices and all the recitals I have ever been in. I knew this was just as hard for her as it was for me. Once I got to school everyone tried to avoid the topic that it was the last time on stage as we prepared for the day. we all went on stage and gave it our all as we danced passionaitely to our music for the whole show. Every dance I was on stage I took a moment to breathe and embrace my last times performing. A specific moment I can recall distinctively was during my lyrical dance there was a part where I just extend my arms and look up to the cieling. Here I looked in the lights in awe and realized what an amazing journey my dance life has brought me. I bathed in the glow of these lights and embraced the entire atmosphere of my best friends around me, the music playing and an audience watching me do what I feel most passionately about. The entire show went smoothly until it was time to bow at the very end. This is when the realization hit my friends and I as strong as the spotlight in front of us. This was it. My entire childhood, friendships and memories all created on top of this stage was now coming to an end. Every dance memory from my first dance of rubber ducky to my last solo rushed back to me as I grabbed hands with my dance family, lowered my head and took my final bow. This moment was one of the most important in my dance career. It made me reflect upon my passion and say goodbye to the hobby I love most. It demonstrated why dance was my passion and how it has grown from the moment I put on my first tap show at 2 years old until my last time taking off my tap shoe at 18 years old. Here also was a successful moment to add to reflecting for my project in many ways. First, I began to appreciate the people that dance brought into my life. Everyday I would have practice for at least 2 hours after school with the same members of the team. Here it was easy to get closer with who I was dancing with because of our daily occurrences and develop a friendship on a new level. Also we all had the same passion and same goals when we came to practice so it was easy to form bonds with the people who had the most in common with you. My teammates soon became my sisters, influencing my values of co-operation and being a loyal friend to care for others outside the dance world. These ladies pushed me to want to be not only the best dancer I could be but also the best person I could be. I couldn’t thank them enough for that. This was significant when I was reflecting on my last recital because I noticed as my dancing grew, it paralleled with my relationship with my dance team. Every success and failure I had in my dance career they went through too, becoming each others bond of support. Dance has brought me my best friends in life and memories that I will cherish forever. I believe this reflection will assist with my passion project because I realized a huge factor in my dance life that impacted the person I am today and my passion. By seeing the relationships I have created and values I have grasped from them it is evident that the people surrounding my every day during dance practice shaped the individual I am. Also the loving presence of these people made me want to go to dance and develop my desire to dance. Secondly, I evaluated my journey as I traveled through my dance career. By being with Laurie Ewart’s Danceworks for my beginning years, it created my foundation of knowledge on my skills to dance. I clearly saw this when having to learn new steps and beginning Myer Dance since I needed to use my previous training skills. Next with Myer Dance I began to challenge myself with what I could do. With this I saw huge progress such as being able to do a triple turn, extending my side jete and my overall stage presence.At the end of my recital I realized just how far I've come by pushing myself to be the best dancer I could be. Now I can successfully see my progress and the development of my passion for pieces like my ted talk in my project. I think this can assist parts like my ted talk because now that I have a deeper understanding of my journey and how different factors impacting my dance life, it will be easier to relay this information to the class. The more previous knowledge I know about my dance journey, the clearer the understanding will be to create a specific message to be portrayed to the audience. Therefore even though this day was bitter sweet, I am still thankful for the opportunity I got and moments I will always cherish.

Above I made a video of this years moments to reflect on how my last year of dance has impacting me as a dancer, expanded my passion and completed my dance career.