In-betweensies

"A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." Ecclesiastes 3:4

Dance was always available to me. Whatever I wanted to do with it, I was able. I was extremely blessed to be supported in my passion (and paid for). Through dance I always had great friends, a workout, and a release from the stress the world put on me. Dance was my way of praising God, whether I realized it or not, I danced for Him.

When I came to college (only He knows why He put me in a place without dance), I suffered. I didn't have any way of getting to dance (no car for freshies!) and even if I did I didn't have the money to pay for classes, my body shut down on me, and my faith suffered immensely. I considered transferring, but God continued to test my patience and kept me exactly where I was...

About three times during my freshman year my RA Johanna let me borrow her car to take a class nearby. This class was terrible! I don't know if it was the stiff movement, weird music, yoga teacher trying to dance or what, but I hated it... however, like I said, I went about 3 times, I paid $15 each time, for a terrible class, because I was THAT desperate to dance!

My sophomore year I was blessed to have a car on campus and a few girls to try classes with. I took some good classes and some bad classes nearby and couldn't find a place I loved enough to call "home" (nor could I afford it!). The summer before my junior year at PLNU I stayed on campus to work in the Admissions Office (which I LOVE with all my heart!) and finally took a leap of faith to try a studio further away on my own.

Academy of Performing Arts is in La Mesa, San Diego, about a 25 minute drive from PLNU's campus but well worth the drive! I began taking a weekly class with an instructor that I really liked, he even worked with Mia Michaels! (In case you haven't figured it out yet, she's my favorite). Anyway, this studio is aimed at adult dancers and high school kids who want to go in to the professional world of dance. All the instructors at APA have extensive professional backgrounds, they host master classes almost weekly, and have a few professional companies in residence. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter and attended class weekly at the studio, simply staying in touch with the studio opened LOTS and lots of doors!

In January I saw APA start to post about auditions for Butterworth Dance Company (BDC), couldn't make it because of a wedding, but February came around and (the media junkie that I am, I now follow BDC on fb too) BDC started advertising for auditions at the end of February.

I am a cheap person, fast food dates are great, I'm a sucker for sales, and I will take almost ANYTHING someone hands me if it's free, heck I might even go ask for it free! Well, this poses a problem when you're spending $15/week on an hour and a half long dance class ($14 for the class, $1 for the new song I fell in love with every week discovered in the class, + however much gas costs...), that is quite a bit of money... My cheapness and my stubbornness came together and convinced myself (wow, even I can sway myself... that's a little scary) that I would attempt the audition. BDC was looking for paid company members and unpaid project/intern dancers. I figured, paid would be ideal but not realistic since I am in no shape to keep up, but even the project position... FREE! I don't have to pay for class AND I get to perform, that's a win-win-win ("The Office" reference for my good friends out there) for me!

February 27th, I went...