In the midst of procrastinating from a 10-page paper due in 18 hours #AllNighter I found myself watching A LOT of Dance Moms, as well as going back and looking through my own old dance pictures. After having a nice flood of emotions to think of everything I've been able to accomplish with that passion in my life I got brought back to something I actually think about a lot. The life lessons my dance teachers taught me that have shaped me into who I am today. There are plenty of things I could list here, but I think I narrowed it down to the biggest ones the effect me the most.

1. Always go full out

No matter who's watching, where you are, or the importance of you doing it to your full extent ALWAYS give it your all. I can't even count how many times I've heard "don't mark it!" "your arms are sloppy!" "where's your energy!" "let's do it again since people were marking it!" while doing a dance because it was early or it was late and after a certain amount of times of doing a dance, going full out is simply exhausting. That being said going full out in my dances during practice is what helped me become the dancer I was my senior year in high school. I apply this to my life now by, well, doing things to their full extent the first time. If I'm not going to give something my all the first time, why even do it at all? All its going to do is make me have to do it again later.

2. Just because I'm not good at something, doesn't mean I can't do it.

I'm not good at tap. I never was, but I tried my hardest to keep up.I remember a specific moment in a Saturday rehearsal one year for our production dance, there was a tap section and somehow I made it into this group of dancers doing it. On this specific rehearsal day, ya girl was struggling and it came to it where my teacher said: "Danielle if you don't get this combo the next time we run it you're out." Well, my first thought was "I don't even know how I ended up with the tappers! we all know I can't tap!" and I thought to myself "no, I was put in this group because I can do it" to which in our break before running it again pulled another girl aside and had her break it down again. Long story short, I stayed in the group and so many years later I still know the choreography. These days everywhere I am, I'm probably tapping. I'm also will to try anything, and do my best to do it well.

3. Always push yourself

This goes hand in hand with always going full out. When it's nearing the end of rehearsal, and you have a tough dance you've already ran it three times and you hear "okay, one last time full out!" every ounce of your body just wants to fall on the floor and moan and complain. but you don't, you take a deep breath (or a lot of breaths because you're trying to catch it from the last time) and you go to where you start the dance and you do it full out. No matter what. We had one dance, in particular, one year that no matter how many times we did that dance I felt like I couldn't breath when I was done. It had jumps, leaps, turns, props, rolls, partner work, you name a dance move it was probably in this dance. But, every time we did the dance I pushed myself to do it with as much energy as I could and eventually when it came to recital, it still made me more out of breath than any other dance I ever did. LOLZ totally not the outcome that sentence was expected, but regardless it's this ability to push myself that I'm pretty sure what has lead me to lead the busy life I mentioned in a previous article

4.You're never too old to do simple things

There's a stigma that goes along with Ballet, that it's boring. And to be completely honest, it can be. But it also is absolutely stunning. Go into any studio and you will find a very view handful of dancers that actually like Ballet. I was one on the fence. It seemed tedious and repetitive compared to the rest of my classes, but I also knew how necessary it was. From day one it was explained to me that ballet is the foundation of jazz, lyrical, and contemporary (in a very vague list) and if I wanted to take those classes I had to take a ballet class as well. From that point on I tried my best to always work hard and push myself in ballet because I knew if I was doing well in that class, I could do well and improve in my other classes. After having taught ballet to dancers my teachers preachings of "you're never too old to be doing the simple ballet movements" I understand more than ever why she would always remind us. Such few dancers I think really realize how important ballet is and focus too much on being the next Maddie from Dance Moms. she didn't get to where she is without her technique, and if you want to know where to find it it's the boring little kid ballet movements you do in class. Plies will do wonders for your leaps kids, trust me.

5. Don't let anything hold you back from achieving your dreams

This one I think stands strong to any of the girls I danced with before I graduated. One of our dance teachers specifically has a really inspiring story to the girls that we'd get to hear on our particularly rough practices to hopefully inspire us. It did every time. Mind you, it's been a long time since I've heard this story but basically, her passion all of her life has been dance. She worked hard to go up levels after being held back from her friend moving up but nothing ever stopped her. Not even having two metal rods put in her back and having to completely learn how to use most of her back muscles all over again, which she did. After recovering from her surgery she continued dancing, and now living every dancer's dream living in New York City for fiveish years now having danced for the Brooklynettes, toured across the world, and so much more. Now I did no justice to this story whatsoever, but believe me when I say I still think about it all the time and how it still inspires me to never give up on any dream I have because if I want it and really work hard for it's possible.