I've always been the type of person who would rather perform routines and dances rather than figuring out the best way to score points. I've always been the type of person who would rather sit through a three hour long ballet recital if it meant I could be on stage for three minutes in a tutu and ballet slippers. I've always been the "dancer type" for as long as I can remember.
My parents, and everyone that I'm related to for that matter, always told me that I was built to dance. I'm tall and thin, I have long legs and arms. Ever since I learned how to walk, I've been walking on the tips of my toes, and I still do. When I started preschool, I learned to point my foot, and I would do it all the time. When I was in kindergarten, I had my parents sign my up for ballet lessons, and I loved every single minute of it.
When I moved to where I live now after second grade, I had to change dance studios. My new dance teacher asked to meet me before classes, so she could get to know me. I don't remember most of the meeting, except she asked me to point my foot and she said that my pointed foot was one of the best she'd ever seen.
After fifth grade, however, I grew bored of dancing, and I quit. I lost all my flexibility, which was a lot. (To give an example, I could jump in the air and land in a split. It was one of the things I was proud of, and I used to do it. A lot.) In fact, the only thing I was still able to do years later was my insane foot pointing, but that's probably because I walk on my toes all the time.
Now, over six years later, a friend of mine asked if I would try out for color guard with her. I asked what it was and she gave me some of the basics of it. She said that basically it's a group of girls and some guys who spin flags, rifles and sabres and dance with the marching band during halftime shows. I had seen our halftime show that year, and I agreed to try out with her.
When we went to the auditions, I was extremely surprised to see that the majority of the stuff that the color guard did was related to ballet in some way, shape or form. When I made the team and started going to band camp (cue laughing here), I started remembering all the things I did in dance class that I loved. Chasse tour jetes were my absolute favorite things in the world to do, and I still love doing them.
Now that I've thought about it, I really regret quitting dance. I now realize that I literally went through a phase of laziness. I was bored with what we were doing in dance, which was simple ballet, mind you. However, I learned that the thing we would have done next was pointe, and that was the one thing that I was so excited about doing.
I decided half way through my sophomore year that I would get back into dance, and hopefully get en pointe as soon as I could. I loved being on my toes, dancing, turning, jumping . . . the feeling that I got when I finally accomplished something I had been working so hard on . . . that feeling never got old.
However, I love color guard. The feeling you get after performing . . . I can't even explain it. Standing on the field for ten minutes with hundreds of eyes and cameras watching your every step, every toss, every turn . . . it's amazing.
I feel like I'm caught between my two loves.
Dance and color guard.
This is Kaila, going to get ready for the first home game!
(This is love and this is lust, now which one do I trust?)
