If you're like me and grew up as a competitive dancer, you probably consider it to have been a huge part of your life. Maybe you're still dancing, or maybe you've gone on to pursue another career. Either way, it's practically guaranteed that your experiences were valuable. Here's my list of things that competitive dance taught me. Even though I'm no longer competing, I miss it every day and am thankful for all that I learned.
1. The meaning of having a second family
Being on a competitive dance team means spending time with the same group of people multiple nights a week, probably for long hours. Over time, your team becomes like a real family. The older dancers practically help raise the younger ones, who look up to the older ones in return. You disagree, you fight, you laugh, you cry, and you know that your dance family will always be there for you.
2. The power of sequins
Maybe it's cliche, but as a competitive dancer you learn to accept the glitter life, whether you want to or not.
3. The importance of hard work
It's a dancer's job to make incredibly difficult choreography look flawlessly easy, which takes a ton of preparation time. You build up to a competition all season, spending hours upon hours in the studio, for two or three minutes on stage to prove yourself.
4. The value of constructive criticism
Some people think dance competitions are all about winning, but in reality, they're set up so that your biggest competition is supposed to be yourself. The critiques you receive are endlessly valuable and always give you something to think about, even if you don't necessarily agree with the judges.
5. Poise, grace, and confidence
Whether you're on or off the stage, these three qualities are key in the world of competitive dance. You're expected to exude them on stage while performing and then again during the awards ceremony. Win or lose, you still always want to show your appreciation to the judges through your actions.
6. The love of your parents
Behind every good competitive dancer is an even better dance mom or dad. Parents of dancers make the entire world operate, from driving dancers to and from classes and competitions, funding the activity, sewing costumes, doing hair and makeup...the list goes on forever. Stressed-out dancers oftentimes don't treat their parents with the love and respect they deserve during competition time, yet the parents continue to be incredibly supportive. If that doesn't show a parent's unconditional love for his or her child, then I don't know what does.
7. The importance of the basics
No matter how cool a dance may look, it's really nothing without the proper technique. A competitive dancer works year-round on perfecting the basics of technique, a feat that's never completed, which really emphasizes the importance of things that seem small.
8. The power of working as a team
A large part of a dance competition surrounds group routines, where each individual dancer suddenly becomes a small piece of a much larger puzzle. If one person is off, the entire performance could be compromised, so dancers have to learn how to trust one another and work for the benefit of a team.
9. How to change an entire outfit in less than ten seconds
Especially at smaller competitions, there probably isn't a lot of time between performances for dancers involved in many routines. A competitive dancer quickly learns how to change from a slicked back bun, pink tights, and an exquisite tutu into a teased ponytail, fishnets, and a sequined dress at lighting speed. And that doesn't even begin to cover switching gears to different styles of dance...
10. How to empathize
In order to really portray emotions on stage, competitive dancers often spend a lot of time thinking about their character and researching real-life situations. I've played a soldier, a Broadway star, a flight attendant, and pretty much everything in between. Through having to embody these roles wholeheartedly, dancers gain a more in-depth understanding of the world.
11. How hard it can be to say goodbye
For me, competitive dance was one of the best things I had in my life, especially during high school. My studio became like a second home and I still got the same rush of excitement attending my very last dance competition as I did attending my very first. Saying goodbye to your studio when you leave for college can be one of the hardest goodbyes you have, but it definitely makes you realize just how much of an impact being a competitive dancer had on your life.
