Dance Accessible to Everyone - Alvin Ailey

If I had it to do all over again...I would have taken dance at a much younger age. As a child, my mom thought dance classes were frivolous and "a waste of money. what can you really do with that?" she would say. So instead, I was enrolled in piano. And I was terrible at it. I went for the cookies the teacher set out before each lesson (no lie.) Later, I was enrolled in figure skating lessons...but when you are twelve and everyone else in the beginner class is three years old, well, that doesn't work out too well. I was bad at that too.

So here I am at almost 39 years of age and just starting to dance and feel like I have a real passion & knack for it. Better late than never...but now see, my dancing is for exercise and that's okay but I feel like I've missed out on something special for the last 30+ years. Now, I don't blame my mother at all. It's hard as a parent to know what "after school activities" to force (e.g., piano) and which ones are fly by nights (e.g., Brownies--that lasted a year). I'm sure if truth were told I probably insisted on the ice skating...as I don't recall.

Andre Agassi now says he hated tennis and was forced to do it by his parents. My gut tells me that someday Tiger Woods will say something similar. And the husband and I often wonder what the child "will be into" we say. As a parent, how do we know when to force a child to do something and how much force, so that they cultivate some real talent or do we let them choose when they may not have the maturity to choose correctly? Was I bad at piano because my mother didn't force me to practice? She didn't. If I had practiced more, would I have grown to like it and be good at it?

After all, you could have a child with a new passion every single week and that could very well be wasted money. I just hope I recognize my son's true talents...and hope it coincides with his wants & desires...so that I can really support and encourage vs. force.

P.S. Was at Alvin Ailey last week in NYC. You can do walk-in classes there for $17 and it's an awesome way to get a workout in while doing the city thing. I loved the place and felt such energy and grace all at the same time, merely being in the presence of such talent that had walked through those doors.