The Beginning of my Dance Journey

Dancing at a young age
Often when kids are young, parents and family members teach them things and new tricks that they can show off to their friends.  In Filipino culture, the common ones are “beautiful eyes” and “where’s the light?” When I was younger my parents would play music (sometimes it would just be to sound of my Dad’s voice) and I would start to dance. Now 20+ years later, I am witnessing the same thing with my nieces and nephews, with songs on the radio, soundtracks of their favorite movies or even us directing them to “Dance! Dance!” when the music comes on (YouTube video below).  So I guess I can say I started dancing at a very young age.

Introduction to Ballroom
When I was about 8 years old a member of my church who was also a ballroom instructor started to offer group ballroom lessons to help raise money for the church.  My parents signed up to take lessons and in lieu of getting a babysitter I just stuck around the church auditorium and watched them as they took their lesson. As weeks passed, my parents would practice what they learned at home, and one day they were having difficulty remembering how something went and I apparently began to demonstrate to them how it was done. It seems that as I was watching them take their lessons I was picking it up as well.

Other dances
For about five years I was a member of Fiesta Filipina Dance Troupe of Canada where I was able to learn and share the culture of the Philippines at various cultural festivals including but not limited to Carassauga, Carabram, Caravan.  Also during this time I pursued ballroom dance, participating in youth group classes where I learned dances such as the jive, rumba and cha cha.

Dancing sabbatical
When I was in university, dance seemed to take a back seat. It wasn’t something I decided conciously, but it wasn’t something I was doing regularly. There were periods of times where I took a salsa class at the rec centre, but nothing seemed to stick. When I first joined the working world full time, my routine would often consist of going to work during the day and sitting on the couch on the evening. I know that this may be the norm for most, however it was becoming boring to me and I was searching for something interesting that might also keep me active.  This is when I thought about dance.  At this time, my search for dance schools was limited to Mississauga, and location and convenience were key factors. I didn’t end up finding a school that suited my schedule and once again dance was put on the back burner.

Reigniting the passion
It was not until I transferred downtown that I found classes that were in a convenient location and fit my schedule.  Since then I’ve rediscovered my passion for dance and it is now a large part of my life, hence this blog about dance and food (my other passion).

Enough about me, what about you? Please feel free to comment on your dance journey and share how you started to dance.