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BLOG - Ever wondered what it's like to be a dance teacher? |
It's an amazing ride, that's for sure. The first thing you need to be a dance teacher is loads and loads of energy. If you don't have this naturally, the next thing you need is good sleep and a great diet cos you give out so much energy its unbelievable.
The second thing you need is a genuine love of people. The good, the bad and everything in between.
And the third most important thing is a genuine passion for dance and a desire to share the happiness and joy you get when you dance.
I love my job, I can't even call it a job, I don't even know what to call it anymore! It's everywhere, I have no boundaries in my life, my life is all dance, all fun and incredibly fantastic. I love what I do. I get to share happiness, joy, laughter and wonderful music all day every day. How fortunate am I?
But it never used to be this way. I took a wrong turn at Alburquerque once and I will never forget it. It's made me appreciate my life even more and I really get now when people say "what doesn't kill you makes your stronger". I had a corporate career and despite being very successful and for alot of the years, very satisfied, it was what I "thought" I should do, not what was in my heart.
When I had the courage to own up to what I "loved" doing and what was really in my heart, I could then take the necessary steps to create the life I wanted.
Now that I have the life I wanted, I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure it's real.
Like this weekend for instance. We have been working our butts off to create DANCE101 over this past year and we've been putting on classes, welcoming new students, marketing, running courses and generally putting ourselves out there. So when we saw the results of our hard work on Friday night at a local Salsa Competition, it was pretty amazing to say the least.
After one year of being in business and six weeks of running a Salsa Competition program, we generated over 30 people onto the competition floor. That in itself is a huge effort, but to have five of the couples win something, well, thats just amazing! The most fantastic thing about the wins was the clean sweep in the Beginner section. Not only did we flood the floor with loads of brand new, never danced before beginners but we took out a clean sweep Trifecta with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place!
Now I'm no trophy hunter but I gotta tell you, the feeling of seeing those guys on the floor, after their hard work, knowing they were terrified and then seeing them being acknowledged for their efforts.... well my heart almost burst out of my chest, all swelled with pride. I was ecstatic, not for me, mostly for them but moreso for the impact we have had on the community.
Over the past year, we have welcomed so many new people, opened our arms, made them feel comfortable and put our effort into teaching well, passing on our knowledge and having them progress. We wanted them to get the impact of our teaching, it was our intention to have them be able to carry on our knowledge inside their bodies so they could go out and dance. And we wanted to do this to alot of people, not just one or two private lessons here or there.
So we were filled with joy when we saw our guys come out in numbers, they brought their family & friends, they danced up a storm whether they felt like it or not. They carried our knowledge in their every cells, they used it to generate happiness and joy not only in themselves but in their family, friends and everyone in the room.
They brought laughter, smiles, excitement and inspiration to the entire room, to their communities and to people they didnt even know.
When I looked across the room and saw the smiling faces of the people watching our guys dance, I felt so happy, words can't describe. Our hard work had generated so much happiness, joy and freedom on the dancefloor. It was all worth it and I would do it a thousand times again within the blink of an eye.
That's what it's like to be a dance teacher!
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