Saturday 4th April 2020

Next up, it’s time to hear from Amy to find out what dance means to her….

I am 14 years old and I have finally been chosen to do a solo in a dance for the show, this is a big day, one that played a huge part in the years that followed! Fast forward six years and I’m playing the lead role in my college musical! But it didn’t start out like this…

I started dancing at the age of two, as a child I always enjoyed dancing but it was just a hobby. It wasn’t until my best friend wanted to join ‘Stage Class’ (perhaps the equivalent to BE.Dance Company) that I started to become more invested in my dance lessons. We were ten years old, and funnily enough my friend’s time in Stage Class was short lived, but I was hooked. In class, however, I was the newbie, an underdog. It soon became clear that if wanted to dance alongside the likes of Lacey and Naomi, who were just mesmerising to watch when they danced, I was going to have to work my socks off.

So, following the advice of my dance teacher, I started to take Ballet exams. This didn’t come easily to me, and to catch up with those the same age as me I had to take two or three exams a year. But I did it, and eventually I plucked up the courage to ask my teacher for a solo to perform in competitions. It was in these private lessons that my teacher kept saying to me “Amy you need to ‘dance it’ and not just go through the motions”. At the time I thought, “what do you mean? I am dancing it; look, I’m doing the moves you told me to do”. I don’t know what did it, but I soon came to realise what ‘dancing it’ meant, and that it wasn’t just dancing I loved but performing as well. To express an emotion, portray a character and the exhilaration of feeling the freedom to let go in a performance and play someone else.

Styles like Lyrical and Musical Theatre quickly became favourites of mine and then the day came, I was asked to do a duet, and not just one but two- one with Lacey and one with Naomi. Me! They wanted to do a duet with me! 

Of course, by this time we were good friends but I still felt like that same underdog, surely, I wasn’t good enough to dance alongside the likes of them! The songs were “He Whistled At Me” from Starlight Express and “I Believe I Can Fly” and I can still remember these dances to this day (not to mention I am still friends with them as well) Sometimes we won and sometimes we didn’t, what was more important was performing together on stage and the memories we created while doing it.

I then went onto dance many solos and duets, I trained at a professional college and worked as a professional dancer and singer (but let’s leave those stories for another time) And that little ten year old has always stayed with me, the underdog working her socks of to be just that little bit better.

So, what does dance mean to me? 

Dance has played such a huge part in my life and continues to do so, and hopefully will for many years to come. I’ve always wanted to be that 60-year-old teacher who can still jump into the splits! I will always love feeling that rush from letting go in a performance, especially when I see that in a student. Dance has taught me determination and that self-belief and staying positive are very powerful. It has also taught me the importance of having a goal and going for it- if you always work hard and do you best then the sky’s the limit!

Amy x

Back in the day!