Every child has a dream of bigger things. It doesn't always work out later in life as we imagined it at the wise old age of 8-years-old, but we generally remember what our former aspirations were.
Many times, there's the passion there & those dreams are incorporated into our lives somehow later on, but generally the teaching astronaut ballerina is a bit over-specialized.
Growing up, I loved the thought of being a ballerina. I am not sure what made me think this around the age of 4-years-old, but I knew I wanted to do it. My folks signed me up for dance classes, and I took tap, ballet & that beginning acro where you try to somersault down a mat, and flail doing a broken cartwheel. We even got to wear costumes with sequins & fluff...and even got to put on makeup to get on stage...in front of people!! Whoa!
Crazy!!
I decided I needed to keep going with this!
When I was growing up, it was a quintessential part of Thanksgiving to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It still is. But there was one part I always looked forward to...
The giant character balloons? Nope.
The marching bands? Nuh-uh.
The floats with random musicians? Cool...but no.
Santa kicking off the official Christmas season? Not it, either.
The one thing I looked for every year, and still do, is the Radio City Rockettes!! *swoon*
The makeup, the costumes, the dancing, the chorus line kicks...
That part is what I aspired to as I grew up dancing: the kicks. I worked very hard to keep my legs limber & my kick ability high. And I did a good job! I was going to live in NYC & be a Rockette!! World famous, amm-i-rite?
Then they had a satellite group in Branson. I still wanted NYC...but I'd settle for Branson if it meant adding "Rockette" to my tiny resume'.
But before I got myself together, a few things happened. A few things happened that changed my childhood dream of being a Rockette...
1. I took tap for years. The year after I received the studio award for "Most Improved in Tap", I quit tap. It wasn't my schtick, yo. Even though I got a trophy that I earned for making strides in a style I wasn't fond of, that tall piece of bling wasn't enough to keep me going in it. Several years later, I was sad I gave up tap...especially when I found out/realized that the Rockette's do a whole lot of tapping. D'oh!
B. At one point, some of the Rockettes came to Kansas City. I remember reading an article including an interview from a journalist in the Kansas City Star about these visiting Rockettes. My envy set in that I was not one of those gals. The journalist printed about the costumes of the Rockettes, and how the waistlines of the costumes set differently on each of the visiting performers, but the waistbands matched up making an even line. Hmmmm....guess that helps with the very even kick line illusion! But then the article stated that the very few visiting Rockettes walked around exactly together, stepping down on their right foot at the same time, and even standing exactly the same...even sitting completely synchronized! Wha...WHA??? I then became very bothered by this. Somehow, they took these lovely women, who do look very differently on their own...and turned them into cookie cutter dancers. I mean...that's what professional & competing groups strive for...ON STAGE! But out in the real life?? Ummmm...I was deflated. I'm WAY too individual to be crammed into a cookie cutter!!
III. I'd found my soulmate (reminder HERE), and had kiddos...and just had a much different lifestyle. Plus, my hubby had gotten a calling to ministry (yes, I'M A PASTOR WIFE PERSON), and so many things changed. It would have been very difficult to move to NYC & be crammed into a cookie cutter lifestyle of sorts...
Thus was the end of my dream of being a Rockette. Thankfully! Can you imagine me blending in with a group of others?? That's insanity!
But, I still use my dancing for ministry now. See? You have dreams as a child, and many times it takes hold enough that you use it somehow later in life. But I get to do it as an individual, and I get to help teach others how to use their whole selves to tell a story. I don't always get the glitz anymore, but the shift to storytelling has been a beautiful thing. And I love including others of all levels for simple storytelling thru dance.
So I'm still a teaching ballerina...just haven't worked out that whole astronaut thing yet.
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| Polyvore image by ashes2beauty |
And as for the Rockettes, I still love to watch them when they come across my television screen...and it makes me thankful that I'm not one of them from a cookie cutter. I can just be amazed from afar.
Stay tuned...
God Bless, AM~Erica
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