I cannot emphasize this enough. Dancing is my savior.
A few weekends ago, I went up to D.C. for my second Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention. I learned from Rhapsody, Marty Kudelka, Tony Czar, Kevin Maher, Chonique, and Laura Edwards - HELLO! How freaking cool! These people have choreo'd for the top in the industry and they are insanely good.
And so are the dancers that attend these conventions. I was in the advanced class - definitely at the bottom tier of that class, amongst a bunch of teens that looked like they dropped out the womb doing the Dougie. I am in awe of all of them. I mean these kids are amazing - they dance with such precision, such passion, and such damn swag. I totally dig it.
It was a great weekend, to say the least. Coming away sore and sweaty, but smiling nonetheless. I thought what I really missed about dancing was being on stage. That's still true to some extent - I miss the cheering sections, the blazing lights, the heart-pounding music, the feeling of triumph at the end. But that weekend made me realized I missed a lot more than that - I missed learning in a creative environment where those that surrounded me taught me something by just being there. You learn so much more about dance when you watch good dancers, and I was surrounded by hundreds. I missed being with my friends - my dance friends, who despite our backgrounds and our future goals, all had one thing in common: dancing was in our blood.
Dancing IS in our blood.
Perhaps what I miss the most is the escape that dance gives me. In this life dominated by routine studying and stress, my dance class once a week is the place here I let loose. Monsters weekend was a whole 2 days of it! Imagine that. Two days to do nothing but dance. When you dance, its impossible to think about other things. You can't stress about your test coming up, you can't brainstorm for your MedSoc paper, and you definitely can't try to sort through any drama in your life. All you can do is focus on what move comes next. When you have that part, something in you wants you to just break out and show the world how damn good you look when you dance. And then you just let it all out on the dance floor. God, that is a good feeling.
I just finished up a Healer's Art course in school that takes a deeper look at what it means to be a physician and tries to remind students about why they chose this profession. Pretty good class - definitely a little "kumabaya" at times, but a good release from the normalcy of science classes. Anyway, during the first class we talked about what part of us we thought was missing during med school. Naturally, I said dance - more so my escape . It wasn't fully gone, but it was definitely reduced from before. On the last day of the course, a friend in my class told me that no matter what, she just envisioned me dancing. Dancing, dancing, dancing, prancing anywhere and everywhere - and letting that lead my life. She didn't mean she saw me being a professional dancer ; I'm nowhere near that nor do I want to be. But it was nice to see that someone else saw the dancer in me too, the part of me that loves to let loose, to have fun, and to be creative. A part of me that I am trying desperately to stay connected to while in school. A part of me that I want to not only keep, but to grow. A part of me that I love. A part of my life.
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