I started dancing when I was five years old.  You can’t do much at that age besides the simple basics, like positions, pliés, relevés and moving around the room like animals.  I continued to dance through my adolescence, dancing five days a week at studio while going to school and doing homework like every normal teenager.  I made scarifies along the way like missing a dance to do a competition or not going out with my friends because I had rehearsal or class.  I majored in dance in college, which turned into dancing and cross-training eight hours a day, sometimes more depending on upcoming performances.  After graduation, I taught ballet and modern classes to various age groups from three to eighteen years old.  When I went to graduate school I stopped dancing as intensely as I did previously because I realized I wanted to be more on the business side of the art and entertainment industry.

Since I stopped dancing regularly, over the last three years I started to gain weight, and my body changed which made me frustrated and upset because I had pretty much been the same size since I was in high school.  Recently, I got into a workout program called 21 day fix, which not only has you working out every day, but gets you to develop a better eating plan (i.e. less processed food, less sugar).  I love cookies, ice cream, brownies, basically anything that has sugar it count me in on saying yes if you offer it.  Anyway, I am now on the road to improving my health through regular exercise and better eating habits.  I still dance, just not as intensely.  I feel that everyone who has ever danced and then has gone to a life of not dancing has faced this challenged.  My best advance to you is don’t give up.  You can always fight to be better then yesterday, even if you are not the size you were at twenty-one.

Schedules get busy with work, significant others, children, social lives, and just needing down time.  As a person who has grown up with dance in their life it has always been about improving yourself, being better then yesterday, and dedication.  As an adult, I think some of us lose that drive and the thought that anything is possible goes out the window with it.  Sometimes we all need a little reminder that life is what you make of it and we need to keep the same dedication we had as children and carry it into adulthood.  Without that drive we only end up sitting on the couch watching netflix and getting lazier with everyday that passes.  Find that drive and energy you had as a kid, and remember that anything is possible with hard-work.