If you were a dancer growing up, some things tend to stick with you for quite some time, no matter how long it's been since you've been on a dance team or competing or taking classes.
1. You'll always rock a bun.
Doesn't matter if it's a high bun, sock bun, braid bun, low bun, bun with a side part in your hair, messy bun - you'll always feel okay in a bun. It was your go-to hairstyle for ballet and to get the hair out of your face and you always tend to somehow keep it in your life. Besides, throw your hair up in a bun with some business clothes and you look ready for the most important meeting of your life.
2. You need a good stretch from time to time.
I haven't gone a week my entire life without doing some stretches because my body doesn't feel as good when I don't do it. Dancers are conditioned to stretch prior to class and at the end. How do you tell a dancer from a non-dancer at the end of a work out class? How much they point and flex their toes while stretching - because you do get a different stretch when your feet are pointed versus flexed.
3. You make up choreography at random times.
Especially in your head or in your car. You hear a new jam and boom - you see it on stage in your head with all different people doing your routine. You can't help it. When you hear a song, you imagine the lighting, dancers and feel like you should drop everything to actually choreograph it.
4. You count tempo in music without even realizing it.
You can find the different beats in the music and find the different tempos throughout songs. You find yourself thinking 1-2-3-4-1-and-2-and-3-and-4 then switch it up to a 1-2-3-2-2-3-3-2-3-4-2-3, and it doesn't matter where you're at, you can find the different beats at any point in the song. It's just something you do.
5. You wear tights a lot because you don't mind them.
When you start a full-time job and everyone complains about having to wear pantyhose or tights because they're too tight or uncomfortable, you don't mind because you're so used to it. Hell, you might even feel better in them than without them because you feel more put together and ready to take on the day since it's part of your wardrobe.
6. You never take too long to get dressed, because, hello? Costume changes?
Not to mention if you took classes in high school or college and had to go from ballet attire to "normal" clothes within minutes between classes. You are great at being able to change quickly and if for whatever reason you think there's no time to change, you're a layering master to turn your dance class look into a cute or classic look.
7. You are always cracking every bone in your body.
Neck, every vertebra in your back, toes, knuckles, hips, you can probably crack it. I never really figured out why this was, maybe the jumping, stretching, extending, hyperextending, turning, leaping, and all the other millions of things we do that are called unnatural by any non-dancers. Regardless, you can do it and it feels good, so why stop just because you're not spending 12+ hours in the dance studio per week anymore?
There are a hundred other things I could name that are habits or rituals that you picked up in a dance studio but the fact of the matter is, they'll always be a part of you. Once a dancer, always a dancer, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
