Dance...my life support

Alright,

I might as well get it out there on the table. Dance has become my life support. The other day I was scared a knee injury was going to take me out for the season and I was nearly devastated. Let me inform those of you who do not know my background in ballroom just what is going on.

Growing up my family never had the funds to give me lessons in things like voice, piano or dance. Things that I really loved and deeply desired to pursue. So I promised myself that as soon as I got to college I would do just that, sign up for everything possible. Which is precisely what I did. My first semester at BYU I enrolled in a beginning ballroom class, a beginning piano class and voice lessons. (Remember this post is just focusing on my dance journey).

That class turned into the catalyst for my ballroom passion. That and the movie "Shall We Dance." Something about that tango music just spoke to me. My partner for DanceSport convinced me to stay and miss my BYU MENS CHORUS concert that was being recorded that night for national broadcast and to my surprise it was for the best. We ended up winning that class event which in turn made me think..well what did I do that the others didn't? I was just doing the steps that they taught me.

Well after that semester I left BYU and prepared to serve a mission. Upon returning I saw many of my fellow class mates on the beginning ballroom teams and to tell you the truth I was jealous and thought to myself (I beat you and you and you...:) Anyways, I kept going with the ballroom thing, taking 2-3 ballroom classes a semester. I auditioned for the beginning teams after one semester of being back and made it. I started taking private lessons, getting into higher level, audition based classes.

Sure the complements came every so often (but not often) from a teacher or a coach, but something inside me just said, "Keep with it." Something about dancing ballroom just spoke to my body. When I explain this to other ballroom dancers I say, "It just feels right," and they get me. Over the summer I had to take courses to get into my major so to preoccupy my time I took lessons, and was on the Spring and Summer teams.

I am now on the middle team at BYU (there are five teams I am on the third, the first being tour team). I am taking just about the highest classes in ballroom there is to take: Gold II Latin and Gold II Ballroom and 480 (Smooth)---my personal favorite.

Needless to say in this process I received an award or two from one competition or another in west coast swing, mambo, ballroom (waltz and quickstep), smooth (waltz and foxtrot), Rumba, etc. (you get the idea). I'm anything but the best, please don't get that impression of me, but I do have to say that I see my progression and it excites me.

Now I have three wonderful partners. I am in three technique classes, team, and I TA for a beginning ballroom class: 5 hours. Besides that my open partners and I practice about every day or so (tack on 2-3 hours a day.) Plus a two lesson or so a week from private instructors...ya I guess I could see why my leg started to give out :)

So that's my ballroom life in a nutshell. I love it. The adrenaline, excitement, poise, smoothness, excitement, tenacity (the list is endless) of dancing ballroom and latin dances is to put it simply....addicting. Trying to get that line just so, or make that count, or dance and entire 1:45 seconds of quickstep full out......what a rush. I love looking like a modern Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly (although he really didn't do ballroom). I love the respect you learn for the ladies. I love the class about the sport. I love the fact that I can eat whatever I want and stay relatively fit because I'm dancing something like 7 hours a day.

I love it. Nothin' to it. I'm gonna push myself tell I am the best I know I can be. On a side note, the other day we were looking at dance magazines for an assignment and I said to myself, "If only I would have been trained when I was young, I most definitely would look like the guys in those magazines."

K, this post is long enough...but I hope you get the gist.

Sir Charles III

Um...The Second Post

Don't judge....its a great title.

I just decided I needed to post again. You know, kinda like when you decide you should write in your journal. Okay so update:

Relationship # 1
A couple weeks ago I broke up with a wonderful girl. We met last year in a ballroom class and started to practice with each other...often...outside of class. It was great. At the beginning of this year we started competing together, thus practicing together and I most definitely wasn't complaining :)

Well soon after we (she) decided to stop dancing with each other and start seriously dating.

Well we dated for a couple months. Loving to be with her. I don't know how much she enjoyed watching SYTYCD, or any of the other shows we watched together. I loved just being in the same room as her.


We liked to go to movies, out to eat every now and then, and hugging, lots and lots of hugging.

In the end, it was difficult to break up because nothing was wrong. The only problem was I "didn't know." I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't know why I didn't want to go on with the relationship but it just didn't seem right. So we decided to take a break.

Relationship # 2
Dancing. Yes, it is slightly my life. And as much as I don't like to admit it: it's a drug. I started dancing with this absolutely exceptional lady. We had a great time learning routines and practicing together.

Never taking ourselves to seriously. :)

We competed a few times, placing nicely in Vegas and other competitions. Dancing with her was a thrill. We realized our potential in the Smooth division and really took to it. I decided that continuing to dance with her would be detrimental to both our competitive careers. So I broke it off with her in the hopes that the two of us could find partners that would improve our abilities and push us further.

Life is about relationships. If I could ask for one super power (as we so often are in interviews and functions where girls are present) it would be the knowledge and wisdom to know what to do in all situations. One of my roommates mentioned that we do have that power.

Prayer. Well, as true as that is, I don't trust myself as much as Heavenly Father trusts me. Sometimes I just want to know the right decision at all times. Which girls to go after and which are not worth my time. Which major to pursue. Our loving Heavenly Father often times lets us make those decisions, knowing that many decisions just require effort and faith.

What would life be like if we couldn't have fun learning from the wrong choices we make.

I guess if I could re-title this article it would be relationships.

------Lawrence------

Here Goes Nothin

Alright,

First blog is the hardest right? Like first day at school, first exam, first broken camera, first break up, first batch of cookies, first impressions, first door on the mission, first brick made from your bare hands…..

Okay maybe that’s enough.

…Am I right or am I right? I often imagine something amazing happening with this blog; like the producers at ABC, NBC, CBS, and other acronyms ask me for the rights to my story and I tell them 

"AAAAAA HEEEEEEEECK NO!" JKJKJKJK

Aaaaand…It becomes this really motivational thing for someone who ends up changing the world or something. Or a book I suppose.

No matter. The best lessons in life are the lessons learned. If I’ve learned one lesson in my life its that…

Okay lie. I’d like to say I’ve learned a lesson but that would be way too restricted, and cliché and so not me.  So let’s just say I’m in school. Learning. Cause that’s what you do right?

I’ve wanted to start this Blog since forever, wanting to do the whole “Guys advice for Girls or Girls advice for Guys.” I feel like I give pretty good advice. (Mooshy Moment) I think I was just raised the right way to understand the girls side and, naturally, I should understand what goes through the average guy’s head. But people say that’s too cliché and overdone. advice for

So this is about me. My adventures. Average adventures. If anything it’s for you who have nothing better to do at work but interest yourself in other people’s lives. That’s cool…(awkward silence)…

Now for the real question, do I have time for this? Absolutely not! I’m like any normal college student: 16 credit semesters, 20 hour weeks, practicing 4 hours a day (mostly ballroom), social life, church, oh ya…..SLEEP. So I guess I can do without the sleep every now and again.

Well that wasn’t so hard. I guess It’s just like talking to a computer. Not weird. :)