“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” – Martha Graham
For those of you that don’t know I used to dance, a lot. I was in the pre-professional daytime program at the Kansas City Ballet which required 30+ hours in the studio training.
Do I Miss It?
May 16th, 2019 was the last day I danced. This means, it has officially been over a year since I have danced. I get asked all of the time if I miss it. It’s usually the question I get asked right after I mention that I used to dance.
When I first left I thought I would miss it a lot more than I do. I’m blessed that I had time to figure out the path that I wanted to go down after I quit. It is something that I worried about at first, but I couldn’t be happier with my decision.
What I Do Miss
The one thing that I do miss is the comradery of your fellow students, company members, choreographers, everyone. We all understood the physical pain and exhaustion, we would look at each other in the eyes and just know. You can’t find that if you live your life that a “regular” person not forcing your body to go through intense pain show after show after show.
The decision to quit is one that I made internally. I didn’t really let anyone know why I wanted to quit. I am cautious about sharing because of the love that I still have for the art.
It is something that brought so much joy to my life, and it was my passion for so many years. I even have a shirt that says my passion is dance, I was known by everyone as oh that is the girl that dances you won’t see her around much because she is always in the studio.
A lot has happened in the past year, and it really flew by. I might take a few classes again at some point, but for right now my path is elsewhere. Dance will always and forever hold a special place in my hear though, and I doubt it will ever go away.
