Trigger Your Thoughts

In the small town of Panama City Beach, Florida, dance is not a big part of the beach culture that resides there. It is often forgotten, but its easy to be forgotten when when the performance only happens once a year. For the dancers; however, it is part of our life. I spent countless hours at the dance studio my last year there, and I never wanted to be anywhere else. While a break over the summer is nice, I wish my dance studio wasn't seasonal. In the summer months, I often find myself running through the choreography of old dances... at least what I remember of them. My desire to dance over the summer leaves me choreographing meaningless routines in my living room. My parents always know when Ive been dancing because all the living room furniture is pushed to the perimeter of the room. I hope for the best that I don't break anything. Hearing songs often triggers my memory and love for dance, and I find myself mentioning to my fellow dancers how fun it would be to dance to that specific song. 

I burn inside hoping the song choices for the upcoming dance year will satisfy me. The songs chosen are often songs i've never heard of. Some I wouldn't even consider songs, but rather just a combination of different sounds, creating some sort of meaningful instrumental in the end. While my teacher often picks song choices that I would never dream of or even consider dancing to, the end product always turns out amazing. My first thoughts are usually, "How do you even dance to this?" She always finds a way and has some crazy idea in mind. I guess thats why she's the teacher and i'm not. The songs I would choose for myself are often more upbeat, faster, and relate more to the jazz and hip-hop style of dance. This makes sense though that those songs would trigger my desire to dance because hip-hop and jazz are most definitely my favorite styles. The songs usually chosen for me in Modern; however, are more interpretive. They end up telling more of a story. I always end up loving it, but I can never picture myself dancing to these songs in the beginning of this 9 month story-telling process.