Most people that know me, know my nickname is Rayne. It come from my first name and I've had it ever since I can remember. It is also highly likely you've also read or just know that "Life isn't about waiting out the storm, it's about learning to dance in the rain!" is pretty much my motto. I love rain. Everyone knows that. So you can probably see how this all fits together, yes?
Well, there's one more little aspect to that.
It's not just that I love going crazy and dancin' in the rain, but I absolutely love dance. I mean LOVE.
I remember when I was little, my brother was in college at BYU Provo, and on their tour team. My mother would always take me to their performances and competitions. Oh man. I always looked forward to those. I got so excited and each and every time we would leave I'd beg my mom to put me in dance class. I wanted to dance like that!! There are vague memories of consideration but then having my sisters say I was spoiled and didn't deserve it. In reality it wasn't that my mom wouldn't have put me in one, but she never got around to it. So when I finally entered middle school in 7th grade you better believe Dance Basics was my top priority and there was no way I would have settled for not being in it. 7th grade, 2nd semester, 5th period. That's when it finally began. I loved it. Simple as that. The next year I tried out and got on to their Advanced team. No, I wasn't the best--that was obvious, because otherwise I would have been on Performance Company. Do you want to know how much I cared? Okay, yes, sure I really wanted to be on Performance Company, but I was dancing on a relatively good team, and that's all that mattered to me.
It was the next year things got a little more interesting. I had tried out for the Freshman team at our high school, and made it. However, I had also been advised to try out for the BYU Youth Junior program. So I did. I made it, too. That year I danced on their Standard B and Latin A teams. You better believe that when I found out I was on their Latin A team I was ecstatic. I adored that medley and probably always will. Well, the next year I only bothered trying out for BYU Youth again, only this time I'd actually be on the legitimate Youth team. That's where things are a lot more intense. So many people tried out that year they added another team. Technically it was called Performance Company. Everyone else calls it C team. That's the team I got on. It was a good experience, but I would never want to be on it again. That aside, because of schedule issues I found out I could no longer do dance with the BYU youth program. I was devastated. I assumed it would be the end of my dancing..it just wasn't possible anymore. Don't you ever assume that was an easy decision to make. However, I had to choose, and after much prayer, I felt like making the choice to commit to the one thing that would tear me away from the BYU team was the right choice to make. It wasn't until months later, that my friend made me realize there was a huge possibility for me to make our high school Varsity Ballroom team. Well, I tried out. Through some miracle, I made it, too. Stoked? Easily. I finally began realizing how right that team was for me. The choice of staying on it has and will certainly continue to come with it's fair share of sacrifices, but so does anything worth it.
Now that I've shared that little story of my life, I have to clarify: Ballroom Dance is in no way the only dance I love.
Continuing on with stories of my life...
My sister has a small idea of how much I love dance. She's been telling me for weeks how she has wanted to show me these videos of dances she thought were cool, but never taken the time to show me. (Mostly because the computer that would show them the best is always occupado.) Today she finally had her chance. We went on her room, and showed me the first video.
It was a cabaret shown on So You Think You Can Dance to the music from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Incredible. To say the least...
The fact that any two bodies could move like that and do what they did...seemed physically impossible and was absolutely mind boggling. Given, they were number one in cabaret both nationally and world-wide, but still.
Here's the second dance she showed me.
(You can skip to 1:40 if you wish.)
And here's the third.
(Again, feel free to skip to 1:45 if you don't want to see the pre-performance stuff...)
And the fourth goes to....
(1:40...if you want. The beginning is kind of funny though. This dance I just thought was fun.)
Numero five:
Holy heavens...I can't even describe.. That last one is easily my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't help but exclaim (multiple times I might add...) that I wished I could dance like that. I wish I could have that talent. But man. that last one. I've watched over and over and every time I'm lost for words. I literally cannot describe my feelings toward it all.
Seriously though. I heard someone once explain their love for music because it was a way to express the emotions you can't always word. It's so true; even music with lyrics just magnifies it and takes to a whole new level and talks of things and creates the emotion that can just set the words off. Well, for me, dance takes it one step higher. It's the music combined with body language. "And DON'T underestimate the importance of BODY LANGUAGE, HA!" Sorry--couldn't help it. For realsies though. When I watched every single one of those dances, they told stores, spoke emotions and forced you (well, me) to feel things in a way I don't always feel when just talking or reading something. They're emotions of experience and memory.
When I was leaving after my sister had shown me all of these, I said "Wow..I'll know when I'm in love with someone because I'll feel the same way about them as I do with dance."
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