Why I Became A Dancer

 Why I Became A Dancer                        

                                                                                                        Author : Peta-Jane Dougall

My mother was a stay at home mom which made my life very secure. When my parents divorced in 1970, I was 10, my mother had to go and work. She was a trained Ballroom & Latin American dance teacher, in England, before she came to South Africa. I don't know if it was perhaps a need to be near her or because I had nothing else to do, that I decided, at 11, to start dancing. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Dancing came easy to me, perhaps too easy. My mother was regularly scolding me at my lessons for not having practiced during the week. I remember the first time I got onto the competition floor. I was paired with another young girl, as I didn't have a male partner yet. We danced in the ALL GIRLS CHA CHA section. I think my knees were wobbling cause my mother asked me if I had butterflies in my tummy. I replied I did. She told me - 'Make them fly in formation.'

Such good advice that I remember it to this day.

We walked on that floor and danced our hearts out. Much to everyones delight, we came first. I felt I had burst into the world of dance and wanted to keep going.

As a youngster, I enjoyed the pretty dresses. I used to run around the floor at the end of the competition to pick up the sparkly sequins and soft feathers that had fallen to the floor. I couldn't wait till I got through all the lower sections and I could wear a sparkly dress too. When that day arrived, I was disappointed when my mom told me that she couldn't afford to buy sequins - but she was very inventive and she bought me material that changed colour as the light caught it. 

My next dress was an explosion of polka dot colour. We sewed a sequin in each dot and, just like that, I had my sparkly dress!

With passing all the lower sections and reaching the dress section, I found, besides perfecting my steps and remembering ten different routines, I needed a lot of muscle power to do the fancier steps. I rose to the challange and practised hard so that I could spin and drop with good control. 

My favourite Ballroom dance was the Viennese Waltz. We glided around the floor as one. The sensation of turning this way and that was fantastic. Thanks to the technical expertise of my mother, I never got giddy. In those days we wore many layers of hard tulle net fabric making the skirt quite heavy. It used to swirl around my legs and when you had to stop and turn the other way, I had to brace myself while the skirt continued to turn.  

What I enjoyed the most was the incredible feeling of moving at speed in sync with my partner. That took lots of practice. My heart soared on  the dance floor. The audience were my friends and I loved sharing my love of dance with them.  

It was my happy place. 

I am glad I made the decision to start dancing. I was not one of the popular girls at school. The dancing gave me a confidence that got me through that phase of life and built a solid foundation for the furure.