The Story Behind My Title

So. I changed my title.

I feel like I've kind of started a new stage of life. One that deserved a new blog title.

So here is the story behind the title and my new major. Sit back relax and enjoy a very very long post.

When I was 4 my uncle married a former BYU-I folk dancer who started a clogging studio and my mom enrolled me. I wasn't particularly talented but with time and a lot of prodding from my mom I became pretty good and eventually even began to teach. Along the way I picked up Irish step dancing and flamenco. By the time it was time to start applying for college I had my heart set on one place- BYU, home of one of the largest folk dance programs in the world.

But while I wanted to go to BYU because of the dance I did not apply as a dance major. Why? Many reasons. Firstly dance is not practical. This was always stressed in my home and in my schooling, school always came first and then dance. Dance was the extracurricular activity and it should be treated as such. Smart girls get academic degrees and have practical careers that allow them to excel in the business world. Secondly I was trained in the wrong form of dance. Professional dancers are trained in the classical forms from the time they are little so they will have the flexibility and correct body shape later in life. It was too late for me to start. Thirdly it is physically impossible for me to be a dancer. My legs naturally turn in, I have flat feet, short Achilles Tendons, and very little flexibility or balance. So I settled for a world dance minor and pursued an Art History major.

During one of my classes my first semester I felt something sort of shift in my back and that night I could hardly get into bed because the pain was so bad. So I sat out a year of folk dance to make sure I was OK and then jumped right back in, but the pain didn't go away. Winter of my Sophomore year I finally went in to an orthopedic surgeon and had some x-rays done and he found that I have scoliosis, which is curvature of the spine. I have a 29 degree curve in my spine into the right side of my back. It looks kind of like this:

So I sat out another semester of folk dance and did lots of back exercises to become strong enough to handle the strain of dancing.

So coming into my junior year I was on a folk dance backup team and taking a few classes as well as TAing the Spanish Dance class. This is where Gary comes into the story. My parents had recently moved over by Rexburg and my mom was taking a clogging class from Gary Larsen, the newly hired world dance professor at BYU-I. during a conversation after class one night she mentioned that I had done some flamenco. He was choreographing a paso doble/ sevillanas dance for the Dance Alliance and asked if I could come up and assist him in the choreography.

I rode up with him and another dance professor and as we were talking about dance (specifically the gypsies' contributions to the percussive dance forms of the British Isles) he noticed my enthusiasm and asked why I wasn't a dance major. I replied with the usual- no classical training, bad feet, no flexibility, scoliosis, etc. And I can't remember his exact words but it was something to the effect of, "So what? You're still a dancer."

This completely threw me off balance. This was the first time anyone had ever encouraged me to pursue dance as a profession and to top it off it was one of the most respected folk dance professors to ever come out of BYU. So it crossed my mind but I decided against it, I was on track to get onto SPAC (Spring Performing Arts Company) and just starting a new major.

Well, fall semester imploded in a mess of personal crisis and disasters and ended with the SPAC list being posted which, surprisingly, I was not on. When I was not on the list I was devastated, not because I really wanted to be on SPAC, but because I realized that I had reached the end of the line in the BYU folk dance program. I also realized at this point that dance had become more than just my recreation. I wake up in the morning to come to dance class. I go to sleep with sore muscles and thinking of dance. With every song that plays in my headphones I see the music turned into movement in my head. Dance is how I interpret life.

So I called Gary. He probably was a little taken aback with an slightly sobbing folk dancer on the phone asking what opportunity there was at BYUI for folk dancing, but he took it rather well. He assured me of different opportunities that we're available at BYUI and with that I began the transfer process.

So now here I am taking lots of dance and getting ready to move back home. It's quite the turn of events, but it feels good and I'm really excited.

And that is why my blog has a new title. Because the greatest lesson I've learned from all this is how to roll with the curves and bends in the road.


As well as learning to embrace my crookedness. :)