Dancing Through Life

Chapter 1

I sigh, walking into my Florida studio to dance away the stress from the day. As I set my bag down and my music up, memories from my childhood come to mind. I head to the barre to warm up as I reminisce about when I first started dance. I started in Zachary, Louisiana, as I was born in Baton Rouge and spent the first few years of my childhood in my grandmother's house there.

I'm a little nervous as I walk into the studio, holding Mama's hand. Everything inside is so new and intimidating, especially since I had never seen the inside of a dance school before. The halls leading to the small (huge to my little three year old self) studio seemed to be the same color everywhere you looked. The walls were a light beige, and even the polished hardwood floor seemed to match the exact shade of the walls. There's a short and wide viewing window above the height of my head towards the front of the studio. The teacher looks nice as she smiles at me and offers me her hand. (I have no idea what her name was.)

"Come dance with us! You'll have so much fun!"

I smile back politely, turn to give Mama a hug, take the teacher's hand and walk inside.

We did ballet first, then tap.( I've learned since then that those are the two foundations of all other dance styles, and usually offered in the same primary dance class.) I was very shy at first, but soon I warmed up to my surroundings. I felt so free as I ran and twirled around the room with the scarves and ribbons the teacher gave us. When tap time came around, she had us all sit on this long bean bag thing, and she went down the line and tied all of our tap shoes. She did it again when it came time to take them off. I don't remember much from the tap portion of class, except from pictures which aren't really all that helpful.

I fell in love with dance from that day, and continued to go to that dance school for the next few years. I also performed with that school for as long as I was there. We did Christmas parades, Christmas performances, and recitals at other times of the year. I remember dancing as a gingerbread man for a year, then I performed Hard Knock Life from Annie, and I have vague memories of being a bluebird for something, but I can't remember what that performance was about. My sister and I played with that bluebird costume until it quite literally fell apart.

I have a strict barre routine, so I do plies next. My legs are a little sore but oh well, that's life as a dancer. I've learned not to mind it so much.

A/N: Hey guys! So as most of you know, I have taken this book down to rewrite the whole thing and consolidate my Forever Smile series into this one. (I might make this boook into a series depending on how long it gets. But we'll see.) Anyway I would love to hear feedback on it! Do we like the style? Is it easy to read? Relatable? Any errors? Questions or concerns? Please let me know in the coments! I check my notifications at least once a day and will answer comments whenever I see them. Enjoy! :)

-Marlee