Why Did You Want To Be A Dancer? (I Didn’t, My Mother Did!)

I think there are a lot of dancers out there whose honest reply to the question, “Why did you want to be a dancer?" would be "I didn't, my Mother did!".  I know this would be my own daughters' response. You have this little person with all this energy so an energetic hobby seems like a good idea. So you weigh up your choices: gymnastics, swimming, football, rugby, dance, horse riding and, one by one, you tick off the activities you don't like the sound of (if we're honest with ourselves...).

So dancing it is... Now, where to send them?  In the age of the internet, you can just look up anything on Google, ask  for advice on Facebook, or just do it the old fashioned way and ask a friend with children who already dance where they go.

Okay tick, the hobby is chosen, the location decided. Now, which classes?  Most dancers start off with Ballet, but do you add in Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Musical Theatre?  Then the other mothers start telling you they must do Stretch for their flexibility…  And all of a sudden what started as a Saturday class has become a Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday commitment!

Okay - you can handle this, you tell yourself as you lump around the huge dance bag containing tap, ballet and jazz shoes, a change of clothes, socks, tights, hair nets, pins, water, sweets, toys and notebooks.  But it's manageable!  Until one day the dance teacher tells you how well your little one is doing and, as your heart swells with pride, she then moves in for the kill, by mentioning ‘private classes’ and ‘competition team’.

So now you may as well just live in the studio.  If you are lucky, you might have one evening a week off.  Your partner starts to worry where all the money is going.  And where you and the kids are.  Just don’t mention how much that new tap costume has cost or the entry fees for the next competition!  You think to yourself all you wanted was a little hobby for them, not a new career for yourself. On the plus side, your needlework skills have vastly improved, you have become a semi-professional hairdresser and as for stripping a small child out of one outfit and into another, you've now got it down to under 20 seconds, complete with shoes and hairpiece!

But then there come the moments that make it all worthwhile.  When they finally get single tap wings (destroying your laminate floor when they insist on showing you at home).  When they win that first trophy in ballet.  When they perform on the stage, at a competition or show.  The friends and memories that they make stay with them for a lifetime and when they get together you often hear the words "remember when…"

So when you ask a dancer why they started dancing, no matter what they say, you know the real reason!