by Ava Brown
copyright © 2012 by Ava Brown

Leo Rosten said, “the only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.” I think that is true of any art. Someone else said, if you get up in the morning and you have to make music, dance, paint, draw, sing, dance or act, then you should. Why is this? We are best by an urge to express ourselves, physically and mentally, whether as an outlet for our experiences, feelings or just to do it. Can this become habit because it is rewarding, or even if not rewarding, or painful, or expensive, fraught with difficulties, learning experiences, dues, turmoil and other obstacles, something we MUST do? I am not what I would call a writer. I am a human with a drive to have questions answered, and I often ask myself, why???I continue to do certain things, what is personally gratifying about these experiences and I wonder why I continue to do some things, or love them, and why I do not continue to do them. I am afraid of not finishing, quitting, not living up to possibilities, not having those answers and dancing in the dark, so to speak. But of the many things I have started or given up, dance has continued to be the one that was most memorable to me. I felt that by not doing it I was being less than I could be. Even as I take my own daughter to dance, it is for her own good and nothing else, as in the end I know, that is all that matters. I give her the gift and the opportunity to grow and to have the basis of dance on which to measure herself all of her life and to thank not me, but it, for giving her so much that is within herself to accomplish. To be, to be healthy is everything, and dance is a path, not just to health, but to so many other positive feelings, states of mind, experiences, and memories, it just cannot be compared to any other outlet I have known or path to one’s own worth and ability. It is truly possible in dance to become the best that you can be. In writing, art, music or any other form of expression, I am not sure the positive aspects are so overwhelming or obvious and it occurs to me that for other people to be able to read and share those experiences, it might inspire people to take dance to find out what is so great about it. I feel that almost everyone who takes it will be hooked. Having so many answers from so many people might also answer, finally, some of the many questions dancers have about dance, themselves, and what makes dancers tick, common experiences, solutions to problems, similarities and differences. There is always the history of dance, but never a history of dancers and in the end, too few books about the subject and on the shelves at your local bookstore. I think this is a shame. For something so great and for so many people to have so little access or information on the wonders of dance, the issues, nutrition, medical advice, studios, teachers and other people who have been instruments of spreading this happy disease seems to tell the world it is not important and it is.