As if no-one is watching...

I have been dancing since the tender age of 4. My mum had noticed my knees were pointing inwards as I walked and after taking me to the doctors, they suggested that going to ballet classes would help improve this.

She signed me up straight away, and I have never looked back. For 28 years I have been to weekly dance classes in Ballet, Modern and Tap and despite being told that the doctor’s advice has probably caused my chronic back pain now and my ongoing need for physio, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Every 2 years the dance company puts on a show, demonstrating to parents what their children have learnt and showing them what they can work up to. Over the last week we have completed what I believe is my 14th dance show and I am sad that it has now come to an end. We start working on our show dances from September the previous year, we focus on learning new routines and we have so much fun doing it (You wouldn’t believe the simple things that can set our class into disarray and fits of laughter).

For 2 weeks before the show we attend dress rehearsals, perfecting those routines on stage with lighting costumes and the full effect and piecing it all together like a jigsaw for exactly the right fit. Behind the scenes are slightly more crazy than what you see on stage, Volunteers helping with props and running to get each class to the stage on time. Stage managers, lighting and the teachers all trying to keep everything on track and doing so in the heat (not just from the lights but due to the fact the rehearsals and show days were across some of the hottest days we have had this year), so much time and effort go into making it perfect.

For the last few years, as the senior class, we have helped the younger ones get to and from the stage ready for their dances and in doing so you get to know some of the little characters and their different needs, with one girl asking me to hang onto a feather for her 2 weeks in a row, another little one telling me about how people watching her makes her nervous, how excited they were when they saw their parents in the audience, and one little one who constantly asked me what the time was (I couldn’t understand why she needed to know the time at 4 years old). The look of wonder on each of their faces was magical, especially when the older classes walked past in their ballet dresses which you can see in their eyes they absolutely aspire to wear one day themselves, and they will! Once upon a time I was that 4 year old, dreaming of being one of the big girls, and I still can’t quite believe how fast that time has gone to now actually be there myself.

This year the theme of the show was a flashback to all the previous shows, and it was a walk down memory lane, hearing the pieces of music I had previously danced to and weirdly remembering some of the moves. How our teachers picked a handful of their favourites is beyond me, I have so many favourites from the last 14 shows I could never pick out the best, but hey, I’m the queen of indecisiveness!

In all of this above there is something you, as an audience member, do not see. You don’t see what a close knit group we have become. How we have all been thrown together from different classes throughout the years, ranging in ages but you wouldn’t know it. Within the last year alone we have all attended 3 of the girls wedding receptions and what an honour to be there as a group. “The dancing girls” is now an exclusive little club. We are letting in new members though, 2 babies have found their way in, both future ballerinas I’m sure! With us and our teachers we support each other from small issues right through to big, from not being able to get one of the tap moves in class right through to running the race for life to fight as a team!!!

So when you hear people say that Exercise can help your mental health, believe them! My form of exercise most definitely can, not just from the dancing itself but from the people I am spending that time with each week.

They haven’t known that in the last year they have saved me from my own mind on a few occasions, because I have been on the verge of a breakdown and still attended the class, still with a smile on my face and for that hour and a half I have forgotten all about my troubles because we have been learning, dancing, laughing and having a good time.

I have heard somewhere that there are always bumps in the road, but if you stumble…you make it part of the dance, and so I have!

Kim xx