Get Into the Groove

Thursday, April , 2010

Something else in my world is finally going right.  I'm not sure if this is due to the turn of the tide in the rest of my life or just out of sheer determiniation.  Whatever the case, tonight I found my dance groove again.

I am a dancer.  My life is not complete without dance and for the past 3 years or so, my style of choice has been highland dance.  I had my first highland lessons when I was about 3 or 4 years old.  I believe I only danced for a few months before my teacher passed away and the lessons stopped.  Although I lost my opportunity to continue highland dance lessons (and become a championship dancer), I never lost my love of the bagpipes.

Fast forward 30 years.  In a quest to get out of a rut and make a conscious effort to spend more time on myself, I decided I needed to take dance lessons.  I couldn't settle on anything until I spied a poster of a piper at a dance studio.  I started highland lessons immediately and fell in love with it all over again.  That was 3 years ago.  In the meantime, I have progressed nicely, winning numerous medals and trophies at competitions, and I am able to legitimately call myself a highland dancer.

Or rather I was doing that up until last August, which is when I completed my Novice level and advanced to Intermediate.  I think the freak-out factor involved with the level change combined with the chaotic circumstances of my life and that of my teacher, prevented me from dancing for the better part of the next 6 months.  I would go to my lesson sporadically but I began to doubt whether I would ever really dance - or compete - again.  And it made me sad.

But finally, after months of doubt and frustration, things are falling into place.  I've been going to lessons regularly and actually seeing improvement.  My stamina is building and I think I will be competing at my first Intermediate competition at the end of May.  It hit me last night after class that I really can do this.  In an hour-long class, I danced a 6-step Fling, a 2&2 Sword, a 4&2 Trews and a Flora.  Not perfectly, but I did it.  My lungs burned from the exertion but I did it.  My muscles ached but I did it. 

I am back and it feels great.