Personal Narrative-Lace Shoes

When I was four years old I was introduced to a tall, petite, beautiful ballerina who spun around the room with elegance, and effortlessly captured the crowd with her stunning abilities. As a little girl, I sparkled with admiration and was inspired to be all she was, it was from that point on, that I ventured into an unknown world of art, strength and expression. Now being eighteen years old with about fourteen years of experience in the dance world, I have learned and developed the norms, values and practices of the culture, and the conflicting theory within it.

Navy blue with silver eyelets, no laces, a white toe cap, and a black racing stripe. What could be so special about a shoe? To a child, shoes are just something that you sport until your feet bust out of them, or until you wear holes into them. I was eight years old when my feet stopped growing, when I got my first pair of converse, and when my shoe obsession began. The first place I took my Converse was on the third grade trip to Camp Mary Orton. I was nervous about going somewhere new for an entire week, but my fresh-out-of-the-box shoes gave me the confidence to do anything. The muddy earth no longer daunted me and the idea of climbing a wooden pole named after a diaper company (the Pamper Pole) did not shake me. The thought of failing to scale a rock wall could not phase the confidence that my new shoes provided. If the shoes could walk me through the halls of the school, perfectly matching the plaid of my jumper, then I could handle whatever challenges camp threw at me.

I have been dancing since the age of two. When asked about my career aspirations, there is no hesitation before saying “I want to be a dancer.” Being a dancer means putting all other distractions aside, and focusing on my craft. Currently, I dedicate over forty hours a week to dance, which is a schedule that requires sacrifice. When I am dancing, the rest of the world fades away, slipping out of my mind with relaxed importance. For that moment in time, I am completely free, wholly focused on my goals, letting me know dance is what I’m meant to do. With this realization comes a responsibility to myself and the work I have put into improving my craft thus far, and I know I must seek out the best opportunities for growth and continued learning.

“Pointe shoes, pointe shoes, pointe shoes, pointe shoes…” I kept singing, skipping up to the door. I could tell I was thoroughly annoying mom, hence her exasperated expression. She had not heard the end of my ‘finally getting pointe shoes!’ excitement.

“What are you even doing here? I have never seen such flawed technique in all my years as a choreographer.” The words echoed throughout the medical college auditorium. Impelled by the admonishment in front of my peers, I persevered in my endeavor to improve upon my dancing prowess and by the final year of medical school was leading the college dance team. The above mentioned undertaking further spawned an interest for the discipline of Latin Ballroom which lead to participation at the national level. The unwavering focus and persistence even in the face of unfavorable odds is more broadly reflective of my approach towards learning, both academic and extracurricular. This has been instrumental in achieving stellar academic outcomes including being ranked nationally in the top 0.0004 percent in the premedical test and the top 0.6 percent in the common aptitude test for management training.

Of all the values that dancing instilled within me, I believe I learned the greatest lesson when I forfeited my first love. In my mind, I rationalized that school’s importance outweighed my devotion to dance. In my eighth grade year, my studio encouraged me to join their dance company, while my school implemented an academic plan for me that met my educational needs, which included placing me in ninth grade honors courses. Faced with the truth of the difficulty of balancing schoolwork with a demanding practice schedule, I reluctantly withdrew from my dance

As a child, academics always came easily to me. While it was wonderful to be able to excel while putting in very little effort, I wasn’t so blessed when it came to physical challenges. My attempts at playing soccer, riding a bicycle, and playing an instrument all resulted in countless amounts of frustration as I didn’t immediately succeed. Nevertheless, I always had my eye on one particular goal: becoming a dancer. I always envied the grace and fluidity in which dancers moved while I was a short, heavy, and clumsy child.

I was pulling on my running tights this morning and a memory instantly hit me like a sudden jolt from a sound sleep. As I slid my right leg into my running tights, my brain flashed to 20 years prior to my very first pair.

I hope this will begin to change as I have more exposure to these styles of dance, as I have not taken very many classes in these genres. I have found it very intriguing and enjoyable to study new styles of dance. As for what I have accomplished so far, I’ve really enjoyed being able to branch out from the environment I’ve become accustomed to the last eleven years. I even like jazz, a style I was never too fond of before this year. As for goals for next semester, I’d like to learn to utilize improvisation better by learning to be more creative in my movements when I improvise. I’d also like to loosen up more, and be able to do hip hop much better. Honestly, my goal is to become a better and well-rounded dancer through my involvement in Brookwood High School Dance. As much as I like exploring other styles, I would like to do some ballet and maybe a little pointe work. I would enjoy getting to do some of the styles that have made me into the dancer I am so far. But of course, I see the value of all of the styles of dance so please understand I am all in whatever style we

The choreography of Danielsen’s life goes far beyond the corners of dance. Ever since the day she stepped foot into a dance studio, she has had big dreams and lets nothing stand in her way of accomplishing them. “I saw myself as a prima ballerina, but when I actually started to dance, my dream turned into being able to execute well and being able to perform in any

Flexibility is obviously a very important part of being a good dancer and unfortunately it was not something I was born with. But with a consistent schedule of stretching I can reach my goal of oversplits.

We have done numerous Monday Memoirs throughout the year. However, only a couple of my Monday Memoirs stood out to me while I was looking for one to reflect on. Out of the countless Monday Memoirs, my most effective one was the “Shoe Story” that I completed in marking period one. The prompt that I chose during that week is “write a first person account of a day in the life of a shoe worn by anyone.”

As dancers, setting goals for ourselves has become a number one priority for us at Coker College. During both Ballet I and Modern I, I had the chance to explore my body in numerous ways. I realized that there were things I needed to fix such as, technique issues, alignment, and just the way movements were performed. In the course of both Ballet and Modern I, I set a few goals for myself so that I could work towards to becoming a more prominent dancer. These goals included, keeping my pelvis in line, using my plié to its fullest potential, getting stronger in my inversions, and staying more alert in class.

Since I was seven years old, ballet has always been one of the most important parts of my life and spent all my time dancing. However, other priorities crept into my life one by one. I started playing piano and dedicated a portion of my time to practicing and recitals. Soon after, soccer came into the picture. I loved it and I decided to pursue it as well. As I got better, I started playing more and got on more competitive teams. After all of this, I was still climbing levels in ballet. Classes got harder and more often. It got to the point where I was dancing fourteen hours a week. Then I started high school and had the option between going into a higher-level education or just to scrape by with easier classes. I chose the former and proceeded to enroll in honor, dual credit, and A.P. classes.

Ballet has never been my strongest style but I feel that I have been able to have become a well rounded dancer from taking technique classes. From the start I have wanted to gain so much with my goals as well as to find ways to work on ways to make my movement quality softer.Dancing in ballet this semester gave me an opportunity to focus on all of the goals that I wished to work on. Over the semester I have noticed that I picked up a lot of material more than I thought when I do not overthink the material and not get stressed out. In ballet this semester I noticed that I freaked out in class so much which reflected on my technique and being able to be confident with my movement.