Dancing ramblings
Lately I've been thinking about just how LONG it's been since I've really danced...and how much I miss it! Other than the occasional enchainment ("a series of steps linked together in a sequence") across the kitchen or in the driveway, I haven't really danced since I left Thailand, and, amazingly enough, that was almost seven months ago. In Thailand, I taught six weekly ballet classes (mostly to little girls so it wasn't anything too difficult...except for the language barrier thing!) and an every-other-week modern class, but the last time I danced there wasn't in a class. Sunday, the day before I left, at both normal church in the morning, and international church in the evening, I danced to Fernando Ortega's "Come, O Redeemer, Come"...an absolutely beautiful song (hopefully I can post the lyrics to it soon). It was a dance that entirely came to be in Thailand…I first heard the music there, choreographed it there and first performed it there. And since then I haven't really danced at all...and I can really tell. My form is horrible (in my opinion), I've lost quite a bit of my flexibility and strength...I almost don't want to start back since I know how bad I'll be! And I haven't done pointe (for you non-ballerinas...pointe is dancing in "toe shoes") in SO long that it's almost scary to think how it'll be if I ever go back up again! My little sister, Rebecca, was telling me about the ballet classes she's taking now (I was her first ballet teacher), and, during the week I'm home in August, I'm probably going to take her classes with her. It should be QUITE interesting and very humbling since I'll probably be the worst one in the class, yet I was the girl who ran her own ballet school (using the same studio that the classes she's taking now are held in) for two years. That's the wonderful, but depressing thing about ballet...you have to work so hard to be any good, but if you don't maintain it...oh, how hard you fall (literally and figuratively)!
Though dancing has kind of "fallen by the wayside" for me in the past months, I realized recently that I still would very much like to continue in it. It's now more of a "hobby" for me rather than the all-consuming passion and career path that it many times is for other ballerinas my age, but that's completely fine with me. It should be interesting though...the Bible college I'm attending this fall forbids students from dancing on the grounds that "[t]here are certain practices which are considered to be a hindrance to spiritual growth and development". However, I'm planning on taking that up with whoever the correct authority to do so would be (I've been told that would be the Dean of Women) because I think that saying all dancing is "a hindrance to spiritual growth and development" is WAY too broad and simply not true! Obviously, many types of dancing, such as what is practiced in clubs, etc., are "a hindrance to spiritual growth and development", but I don't believe that the dancing I practice (praise ballet and dance) is. "Let them praise His name with the dance..." (Psalm 149:3a) Rather simple, isn't it?! So we'll see what comes of it all...and in the mean time, let's hope I don't entirely lose all my technique!
"Then David danced before the LORD with all his might..." ~2 Sam. 6:14a
Though dancing has kind of "fallen by the wayside" for me in the past months, I realized recently that I still would very much like to continue in it. It's now more of a "hobby" for me rather than the all-consuming passion and career path that it many times is for other ballerinas my age, but that's completely fine with me. It should be interesting though...the Bible college I'm attending this fall forbids students from dancing on the grounds that "[t]here are certain practices which are considered to be a hindrance to spiritual growth and development". However, I'm planning on taking that up with whoever the correct authority to do so would be (I've been told that would be the Dean of Women) because I think that saying all dancing is "a hindrance to spiritual growth and development" is WAY too broad and simply not true! Obviously, many types of dancing, such as what is practiced in clubs, etc., are "a hindrance to spiritual growth and development", but I don't believe that the dancing I practice (praise ballet and dance) is. "Let them praise His name with the dance..." (Psalm 149:3a) Rather simple, isn't it?! So we'll see what comes of it all...and in the mean time, let's hope I don't entirely lose all my technique!
"Then David danced before the LORD with all his might..." ~2 Sam. 6:14a