I did a thing! Never in a million years did I ever think I'd take up dancing let alone do a performance in front of people. It all started last year when I saw my cousin, Janessa's solo performance on Facebook. The solos are entirely choreographed by the dancers themselves, and I thought her dance was really cool. I knew she had been taking these dance classes for a few years now, but at the end of last year after seeing her solo I felt like I needed something more in my life. I feel alone being at home all day while the kids were at school. I feel like I don't have any cool talents or hobbies or anything interesting to contribute and talk about if I was to be with other people. It's been really hard trying to make friends and have people to hang out with since we moved here.
So I texted Janessa one day in early January asking her about her dance class. Janessa is genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever known. She answered all my questions even though I was really hesitant about joining her dance class. She was encouraging and so helpful and I am so grateful for her and her patience with me. Class didn't start until late January, so I had a few weeks to decide what I wanted to do. I am self conscience about my body and my nonexistent dancing abilities, so I was very hesitant to even try, but I forced myself to go to that first class--a room full of strangers and start shaking my hips around. Janessa was there and introduced me to everyone and then we began. I was kinda thrown in even though it was a beginners class most people who were there were intermediate or advanced dancers. BUT they were SO nice and helpful!
I have continued to get to know everyone in our class and have kind of just started talking more and being more assertive as I feel more confident with myself. Janessa and one of our teachers, her name is Becca, would always stop and help me understand the moves and help teach me until I got it down. All of these women are so encouraging and helpful and just fun to be around. Our classes went from being one hour long to two hours long each week and I just love it! My class is full of women of all ages, sizes, and abilities and I might have felt self conscience for the first few classes, but these women are really great about making me feel ok with my body and that I am doing everything right.
That being said, I danced in my very first Tahitian dance performance at Roy Days! I did three dances and two of those were ones we did for the very first time. One dance called Punaru'u is the dance we have been learning all year and it is not a beginners dance, haha. We have been working really hard to get it down right, but we ended up cutting it short by a minute and a half because our teacher, Becca had a baby a couple weeks ago, and it was just too complicated. Anyway, my beginners class performed it all by ourselves! I know I messed up a lot in all three dances, but looking at the video it didn't look as bad as I thought! I couldn't look at the audience even though I practiced smiling and looking up during practice, but if I look out at people my mind goes blank and then I lose all my concentration. I have one more performance in a couple of weeks; it's our family luau so all our friends and family come to see what we have been working on all year.
I am so proud of Stephen for bringing the kids to my performance by himself so they could cheer me on and support me. They didn't last for the whole hour, but boy did I feel loved. I hope that as I continue to learn this amazing dance style and about the Tahitian culture I can also continue to make friends that are just as weird (or cool) as I am.
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