Dancing as a Child

"Dancing As A Child"
Written by Jose Diaz
September 4, 2001

In my family everyone is either naturally talented when it comes to dancing at a young age or they are taught. Many would say that is a Latin stereotype but in my family it's actually true. I on the other hand, well that's a totally different story. I'm the black sheep of the family. I was neither naturally talented or taught at a young age, which is pretty embarassing. The reason behind that is that I never really cared because I wasn't a fan of dancing back then. I would soon learn though through one of my experiences that I should have started caring.

Whenever company was held over or a party was thrown at my home dancing would take place. Dancing was used to celebrate and at times for no reason whatsoever than to just dance. My father's friend would bring over his children, a couple of which just happened to be female (by the way I was seven at the time). Both sides just thought it would be so cute to see me and one of the other children dance. At that point I had realized I never danced a day in my life. A seven year old can feel shame just as easily as an adult and I learned that first hand.

So our right hands meet, hands on waist. From there she began to move, and I would go with the flow. She was leading and my family was confused. Then when I began stepping on her feet accidently and moving completely out of sync they realized why I had been relunctant to dance. Nonetheless to them it was just so cute. Meanwhile I was reaching embarassment levels at all new highs. That event I am quite sure was the single defining event that scared me away from dancing all the way up until high school.

That experience really scared me away from dancing for a really long time. I decided I was a big fan of music, and listening to it. No dancing involved whatsoever. I was able to escape a plethora of dancing situations. After that, whenever a friend of mine threw a party I would always sit somewhere and talk with people but I never danced. In some instances I would just not show up to the party period. I even no showed my junior high school prom just so I wouldn't have to dance. I believe I was truly traumatized. However eventually with time I had overcome my fear and gave dancing a chance, otherwise I would not have had the chance to write this column in which you are reading today. I guess you could say instead of me finding dance, dance found me. The moral of this story? Don't force your kids to dance, let them find it on their own.

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