31 Days - Thank you to a thing I love

In rehearsal with Weave.

Dear Dance,

You thought I was going to write a Thank You to Running, didn't you? No, this time it's you.

You have lived within me for as long as I can remember. Ever since I chose that hot pink leotard and slippers and pink headband, you've resided within. I loved ballet. I can easily remember those classes in the Yarram Hall. I can still hear some of the music Mrs Stoddart played as she would have us practice positions, skips, gallops. I still remember the positions of hands and feet. I can hear Mrs Stoddart instructing us as we stood at the barre, "Point, lift, point, close!" I can still remember focusing on the EXIT sign so I wouldn't get dizzy whilst spinning. Hearing some of the music from Disney ' s Fantasia always takes me back to being on stage for Alice In Wonderland.

When we left in 1974 that heralded the end of my formal ballet training but oh how I missed you! I begged to go to classes in the towns we ended up in but it wasn't to be. Still, you stayed within and I found myself choreographing my own routines to music I loved. Looking back on it now some of the moves were ridiculous but I loved creating and moving. Sometimes friends would join me and we'd create routines to perform for the class. Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear and The Rainmaker being two memorable ones!

I've loved you for as long as I can remember as you've helped me release some of the in explainable emotions that seem too big to express sometimes.

Thanks to being involved with Weave I've finally found a place where I've been able to explore the dance in new ways. Here I've discovered that there are so many ways that dance can be created and explored.

THANK you for bringing me to a place where I've finally "landed in my own skin" and become appreciative and grateful for this body I inhabit. You've been the facilitator for this and I'm so incredibly glad that I've been given a chance to be able to express myself through you.