‘NEVER TOO LATE’ My Journey by Sandra Thompson JWAAD.
I’m not a writer, never put pen to paper before but as they say , there’s always a first time for everything, so here goes.
My reason for writing this article is partly cathartic and partly because I feel that, shall we say, more mature women, like myself, need to know that everything isn’t just for the young and that age is just numbers with no relevance at all to the enjoyment of dance. In fact maybe because we’ve been around longer it might put us at a slight advantage sometimes, well Belly dance and its music is all about passions, emotions and life experiences isn’t it.
So this is my journey, started quite late in life but as the saying goes, better late than never.
Like most people,
I guess, my path into Belly dance started by going to a class near where
I live in Hull. I’ve been a dancer most of my adult life doing all
the usual, ballet, tap, jazz, Latin but always on the look out for something
different to try. So when a friend gave me a clipping from the local newspaper
about Belly dance classes I went along just to see what it was like and
that was that, hooked big style. It was an immediate love affair, so different
to any dancing I’d done before, the music was wonderful and the
dressing up thing, well that was just a bonus.
That was about 6 years ago, I started going to one class, then two classes,
three, well every class the teacher ran. I suppose like most of us it
became an addiction, a very nice addiction, a smile fix I like to call
it.
So for the next 3 years or so that’s what I did, I went to all the
classes I could, did group performances when the opportunity arose and
I thought that was that, I never imagined there would be anything more.
I’m not
a big believer in fate but what happened next changed the course of my
life completely.
My teacher suddenly became ill, not life threatening but she was unable
to teach and as I had assisted in class before I offered to keep the classes
going while she recovered. I thought 2 maybe 3 weeks max. in total it
ended being about 6 months. However, during this time, I discovered that
I really enjoyed teaching, which was a total surprise to me as I’d
never thought about it before. It gave me such a buzz and I found myself
wanting to improve and learn more, make the classes better. I used to
trawl the internet for new music and DVD’s you know the ‘How
to’ DVD’s, we’ve all done it, to try and ‘up’
my skills and give the girls something new to learn. I learnt a lot this
way, not ideal I know, but needs must.
Anyway, after her 6 month absence our teacher came back, all be it for
only a few weeks as she decided to give up the classes and offered me
the chance to keep them permanently. I thought , well I’ve done
it for 6 months so why not, and that was that.
It was while I was, yet again, searching for a good instructional DVD, veil technique I think, that I came across an advert for Belly dance Congress 2007. It looked good, lots of different teachers, workshops, shows and live music and I thought, rather than buying another DVD or two it would be better to take real classes with real teachers, so I booked my ticket.
All I can say
is ’WOW’ it blew me away, I had never been to anything like
it before. Oh I’d done a couple of fairly local workshops but this
was something else. The scale of it, the countless number of classes on
offer, fabulous shows and dancing!!!!!!!!!!
I took 3 sometimes 4 classes a day it was hard work but so worth it. I
picked up as much info on the dance and teachers as I could, leaflets,
promotions, handouts, thinking maybe if events came up in the future,
I would be there.
Initially, I had worried about going on my own, I didn’t know anyone
who was going and I wondered if I would fit in. This was to be my first
experience of the ‘family’ of belly dance. Unlike other forms
of dance that I had trained in, where people kept in their own little
groups and as a newcomer you sometimes felt excluded. These people welcomed
me, chatted, made friends straight away, young and not so young alike,
it didn’t matter that I was on my own, It didn’t stay that
way for long. We met in classes, saw shows and boogied on the dance floor,
heaven!!
I travelled home on a complete high, very tired but very happy, at last
I had found my niche, a place where I fitted, a place with people like
me who loved and lived to dance.
It must have been about a week later, I was sorting through all the stuff I’d brought back with me, keeping some, binning others and I came across the JWAAD leaflet about teacher training, I remembered picking it up at one of the shows. I read it then put it to one side, on the ‘to keep’ pile. During the next few weeks I must have read that leaflet a dozen times over. You have to understand it had been a long time since I’d done any formal studying or taken examinations (30 yrs+) so this would completely take me out of my comfort zone. Not only that, the Congress had shown me how good other people were, would I be good enough to hack it and that question that always seems to rear its ugly head, am I too old. Each time I read it I came up with another reason why not to, or an excuse why I couldn’t do it, until one day late October I decided, no more excuses. Anyway what’s the worst that can happen, you might fail. Yes that’s a possibility but on the other hand if you don’t try you can’t succeed and do you want to spend the rest of your life thinking what if or maybe if. So I applied for the Foundation.
The course
I went on was down south in Christchurch, a fair old trek for me, it was
run by Jan Piggot and Gwen Booth. The first weekend, well the first day
of the first weekend, how did I feel, just like a little kid on its first
day at school, armed with new books, pencils and pens and of course something
for break time. I was so nervous and excited all at the same time, it
seems so funny looking back on it now and the strange thing is I honestly
thought I was the only one who felt that way. Yeh right.
I learnt such a lot from the course, not only about the subjects and technique,
which I have to say Jan and Gwen made very accessible, but also about
myself. I found that I could write essays, do homework, stand up in front
of fellow teachers and teach. Scary or what! The bonus for me, apart from
the Certificate, yes I did pass, were the many friends I met on the course,
some of whom I still keep in touch with.
So ‘safe
practise’ certificate in hand, that’s that you might say.
Well no it wasn’t because after the first weekend of the foundation
for some reason I got it into my head that I could possibly pass the Diploma
and applied for it (someone must have slipped me a confidence pill). You
see if I’d waited to see if I passed the foundation then it would
have been too late to get onto the 2008 Diploma and there wasn’t
going to be another until at the earliest 2010. Anyway I didn’t
want to wait (tick tock tick tock) and although I knew it would be a lot
of hard work, I was in learning mode now and didn’t want to lose
my momentum.
It was somewhat of a quick turn around, I finished the foundation at the
end of March and started the Diploma in April, but for me that was a good
thing, less time to worry and fret, straight in there a sort of continuation,
I thought, of what I’d just done.
Well it was and it wasn’t, yes it followed the same format, lessons
both written and practical, with homework of course, but because of the
broad expanse of subjects covered on the Diploma and the amount of work
we had to get through sessions tended to be a little more intensive!!
Ok at times it was really hard going and sometimes I questioned my own
ability and felt like I’d bitten off more than I could chew (again
that ugly question reared its head - am I too old) but everyone on the
course at some point had their doubts, hey, I think it goes with the territory.
I think they call it character building - what doesn’t kill you
makes you strong.
All that aside if I had to pick one thing that has given me more than
anything else it would be this course, the class of 2008. It not only
gave me the tools to work with, but friends to be with and the enthusiasm
and confidence to push myself and travel further than I ever thought possible.
Yes it was hard work but we had some great times too, fun sessions, social
evenings and events with and without teachers and of course Summer School
and parties (even if it was a bit hectic)!!
I have met
so many lovely and talented people on my journey so far, a whole belly
dance community of teachers and friends too many to name, anyway you all
know who you are. One person, however, I have to mention by name and that’s
Kay Taylor because I believe without her help and guidance I would not
be writing this article now. I met Kay for the first time at JOY in April
2008 and she has been my teacher and mentor ever since. What can I say,
she picks me up when I fall and puts me right back on track, she is my
inspiration and my friend.
I passed my final assessment in May 09 at Ford Castle and received my
diploma a few weeks later, sometimes I still can’t believe I did
it.
When I first
started out on this journey, going to my first Belly dance class all those
years ago. I never dreamt it would lead me to where I am today. Someone
once said ‘Its not the destination, it’s the journey’
how very true. I may have started my journey a little later than some
but at least I didn’t miss it altogether.
Its so easy, especially when we get a little older, to put things off
and make reasons not to do things or change.
Look out here comes a big quote section ‘Never put off until tomorrow
what you can do today’ ‘Live life now its not a rehearsal’
‘Look fear in the face, do the thing you think you cannot do’
and my favourite ‘How old would you be if you didn’t know
how old you were’. If you want something, try for it, take that
first step, so what if you don’t quite make it but then again you
might surprise yourself, either way at least you tried, no regrets, respect
due. Journeys aren’t just for the young anyone can travel you just
need to make a start. Remember your whole life is a journey so make it
the best one possible.
My journey
may not be everyone’s ideal but for me it’s the best………………
How long will my journey take? ………………how
long is a piece of string………….
What’s my destination?……………..who knows
………………..
all I know is that I’m going to sit back, enjoy the scenery and
keep on travelling ……
Not the end.