ART--A Random Thought with Allison DeBona

I dance because it's one of the only things that I can do that makes me feel whole. It's such a hard question to answer but the easiest way to describe it is that I literally can't imagine not doing it. I can't imagine never feeling that mixture of excitement and nerves before you step on stage. I literally can't.
Tierney (aged 15 from England)

why we love to #dance... I think I was 7 when I told my mother I wanted to dance for a living, at age 14 I told my mother I wanted to work for #UNICEF, at age 17 I asked my mother if I could work for UNICEF and dance for the #RIVERDANCE as well. At this point I know I still WANT to work for the UNICEF, and every day, I try to approach myself to that goal. I do not dance for the Riverdance, but since I was 16 I have been teaching how to dance.... WHY DO I LOVE TO DANCE??? Because I feel ALIVE!, because I truly believe that God gave me a talent and with work and dedication I have been able to enjoy different places of the world and see the happiness of a child doing their first dance steps, all by doing what I love, Dance! I have been a dancer since I have use of memory. and I work for #IOV preserving and promoting traditional culture. I dance because I am a dancer, I dance because I feel alive.. I love to dance, because even when not on an stage, I turn and step as if i was dancing... I work promoting #traditional #Culture, because I believe that It is BASE of a sustainable development of nations.!

When I was 5 years old, my mom said I had to go to a ballet-school. She said I was always jumping and dancing around and I could never only sit down. I didn´t like this idea and the first time we went to the school I cried and was really unhappy. Of cours, after my first class I wished to go every day.
Now I´m 31 years, I finished School, become a nurse, then I started to study medicin..... many things changed but I was always dancing.
When I start class today I´m all by myself. Nothing matters, I only concentrate on my body, the music and the exercise.
I can forget the busy day and all my problems. I´m just dancing and afterwards I always feel better, relaxed and more focused.
I´ll start to work as a doctor soon and the first thing I´ll do is looking for a ballet-school in our new hometown
Living without dancing is not possible for me.

My life is so busy and there's hardly a moment where I can just stand still and rest... with school especially, I feel the weight and pressure of all that needs accomplished. However, when I go to dance I forget those stresses! It's a place where I can let go and be myself--I'm more myself when I dance then any other moment in the day. And when I am in the middle of class, I never even think about what's going on anywhere outside. It truly is a blessing to be able to have had dance as my momentary escape for the past 15 years ♥ I think my life would have included 30+ more break-downs and feeling like I can't accomplish half of what I have accomplished without dance. I don't know where I'd be without it!

Amy Elise Ott, 18
Stow, Ohio in the United Stats (dancing with Ballet Theatre of Ohio)

Dance does not always make me feel like a million bucks. Sometimes it makes me feel like crap. Sometimes I hate that I have been dancing for so long and I am not as good as I should be, I hate my turn out, I hate my hips, I hate my spine, I hate that my legs aren't miles long, I hate that I can't pick up combos quickly, I hate that I am directionally challenged, I hate how self conscious I feel going across the floor, I hate that I never get auditions, I hate that I get more corrections than compliments, I hate that the only times I feel like I am good enough is when no one is watching, I hate that I will totally know how to do something but get out in class and not be able to do it, I hate that I get the same corrections no matter how hard I work on them, I hate that I don't have a tilt even though I stretch every day, and the list goes on. But all of it somehow becomes worth it for those few magic moments when it comes together and you feel powerful, strong, beautiful, graceful, and in control all at once. Those precious moments when I feel so passionate about what I am doing I can't describe it. Those perfect moments when I dance for myself and no one else and every painful class, every tear of frustration, every bruised knee, every torn back muscle becomes negligent and you are left on the studio floor sweating, fatigued, breathing hard, your face red, your muscles sore, but your heart exhilarated and you have never felt more alive in your life, and it is in that moment when you understand what it means to live fully and passionately, and you question why you have ever settled for living any other way. it is in that moment when I know why I dance and come back time and time again to every class, rehearsal, and improv sesh in my basement to once again pursue that feeling of worth, value and determination surging through every muscle. I dance because when I do I become the best version of myself.

I would like to add my feelings to this. i knew form my earliest memory that I was going to be a dancer, because I already felt it inside. I was so happy to learn the requirements and then be free on the stage to move so accurately with the music, so that I became one with it. Every day of my life, I have gotten up in the morning with a feeling of excitement as if bubbles of light and energy were traveling up my body until I just dance. Even through life experiences, fatigue, illness and all the challenges of the life of an artist, this constancy has stayed with me and now endows my teaching with so much love and life. I was fortunate to have wonderful teachers, dance with the best, and now to teach the next ones. Every day is terrific!!!