I did a lot of growing up in my hometown dance studio. I used to joke that it was my home away from home, and in a lot of ways, it was. I started my first Pre-School Pals class when I was nearly three years old, still wobbling around on my tiptoes and far from able to turn my feet out. As the years passed, I thankfully improved just a bit, adding the fast paces of clogging, the sass of jazz and the fortitude required for pointe to my repertoire. I danced all the way through high school, even though I was never particularly stellar at leaps or exceptionally flexible or even a phenomenal turner. I simply loved the art of dance and how beautiful and strong it made me feel.
Although I don't dance nearly as often anymore, there is so much that I learned from my 16 years at Rowe Performing Arts that I still use in my everyday life. Here are six traits that I believe all dancers, no matter their skill level, learn from their time spent in the studio.
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1. Punctuality
If you show up late for class you miss stretching, and if you miss stretching you might pull a muscle, and then you'll find yourself missing much more than the first 20 minutes of one class. It's a vicious cycle. The moral of the story? Do the best you can to be on time for class, for rehearsal, for life. It usually tends to work in your favor.
2. Poise
Dance, ballet in particular, is all about poise. Body alignment and the way you carry yourself is everything. Poise goes a long way in all situations, though. Good posture and body language speak volumes about a person and his or her self-confidence.
3. Patience
Sometimes you have to wait for your turn to do the across-the-floor combination, and other times you have to be patient with yourself when you're having trouble remembering a difficult sequence. No matter the situation, time spent in the studio helps you recognize that the process is infinitely more rewarding than an immediately perfect product.
4. Confidence
It takes a lot of guts to perform a new combination in front of your peers or ask for help on a step that everyone else seems to have already mastered. Those moments are often good reminders that humility is an important stepping stone on the path to balanced confidence.
5. Respect
An important part of dance is learning how to take constructive criticism. No matter how much natural ability you may have, there are always going to be points you can improve upon. Respect for your instructor is key to making this a smooth learning process.
6. Determination
Nobody is perfect at everything right off the bat. It takes hours upon hours of practice to perfect your technique or nail the correct angle in a new leap. Another important element of determination is realizing that sometimes, just doing your personal best is good enough. You may not ever be able to do a flawless quadruple pirouette, and that's okay. Keep working at that quadruple, but be satisfied with knowing that a solid triple is pretty awesome, too.
