Your early dance experiences... TELL US ALL!

[jojo]

What are your early dance experiences? We want the full story, with pictures and video if possible!

[jojo]

I took ballet lessons for about 6 months when I was 5. It was way too structured and I hated it. My favourite parts of the class were 'free dance' where we could make up whatever we wanted and 'wiggle bottoms', which is exactly as it says on the box. I asked my mum if I could quit and she let me. I never took dance classes again until I did my diploma of performing arts!

When I was about 7, my childhood friend Erin and I made up an EPIC dance story to the entire Tiffany album. I was really bossy and choreographed the whole thing.

At high school, I was heavily involved in Stage Challenge.
It was pretty geeky, but lots of fun. I got to make up a group dance routine and put together 8 minute megamixes of songs.

All of this would suggest the following: I love dancing and don't particularly like being told what to do.

[Like a Starflower]

I recall a good one: They held a "disco" in our school when I was a first grader, 7 years old. (Probably after that too, but they never were that great, really.) They held a dance competition, and surprisingly I won the first prize! When asked about it, I told "it was all because I had slippery socks!" ...and also because I had seen my big brother perform some spiffy Saturday Night Fever moves.

Seriously, you need to slide to the victory. Fight that friction!

[Punky McMonsef]

jojo said:

When I was about 7, my childhood friend Erin and I made up an EPIC dance story to the entire Tiffany album. I was really bossy and choreographed the whole thing.

OMG that sounds supremely awesome. we used to make up "music videos" to Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna songs, BEFORE WE HAD A HOME VIDEO CAMERA lol. We would just "perform" the videos live. I was partial to Debbie Gibson and my twin sister preferred Tiffany.

[Punky McMonsef]

Like a Starflower said:

I recall a good one: They held a "disco" in our school when I was a first grader, 7 years old. (Probably after that too, but they never were that great, really.) They held a dance competition, and surprisingly I won the first prize!

Ha! you've been a dance-offer since first grade??? no wonder you are burning up the quest board. ^_^ awesome.

[Inky]

Inky was taught to dance by her father. Weekend mornings he'd put an LP on, and she'd come out still so sleepy she only had one eye open. She'd put her feet on top of his feet, and then they'd dance to Johnny Cash or scottish bagpipers before breakfast. Later, Inky made her stage premiere as Lana Ladybug in an elementary school musical called "Gone Buggy".


That's me on the right as Lana Ladybug. I got a boa and doo-wop girls bugs.


I was quite a monkey child. Climbing things and hanging from things is nothing new to me.

But perhaps the most telling image is this of young Inky, with brand new moon boots.

[Punky McMonsef]

My earliest childhood experiences of dancing were that i picked up choreography very quickly and could remember it and replicate it perfectly, and was therefore considered a "good dancer" in school productions, say age 4 through 13. but this was probably more a factor of being "studious" than say, an awesome dancer. for awhile, being smart and not easily embarrassed was enough to fake dance skills.

alas i didn't take any dance classes after the age of like, 5, and therefore over time as other people developed actual, you know, SKILLS, i became known more as an "enthusiastic dancer" instead of a "good" one ha ha ha.

my identical twin sister took lots of dance classes throughout high school and college and grad school and became insanely good, and now teaches dance among other things, and so by comparison not only was I no longer a "good dancer" i think i actually became "the bad dancer'. ^_^ that's how it is being an identical twin!!

But now, at long last, TSDO will transform me from a bad dancer by comparison (because my sister hates playing games, ha ha) and unleash the former enthusiastic dancer in me, and who knows, maybe even someday it will unleash the former good dancer!!!

[jojo]

Inky made her stage premiere as Lana Ladybug in an elementary school musical called "Gone Buggy".


OH MY GOODNESS, that is adorable!

[Punky McMonsef]

Oh, here I am, dancing, sort of, at age 8, in a bouncy chamber. ^_^

Actually come to think of it, that looks quite a lot like my opening moves in DQ1. The hip hop hand bounce thing... hmmm....

[Punky McMonsef]

Inky in moon boots!!!!!!!! stomp stomp stomp stomp
awesome

[Jihadi Jazzhands]

Oh, Lord ... in 1980s I actually worked as a professional entertainer at the theme park "Worlds of Fun" in Kansas City, MO. Here's two videos, one where I'm tap-dancing in a sailor suit ... and one where I have two big solos in a horrible clown outfit.



I could probably even find a high school photo ... with JAZZHANDS!

[Like a Starflower]

Punky McMonsef said:

Ha! you've been a dance-offer since first grade??? no wonder you are burning up the quest board. ^_^ awesome.

Well, after my first official dance-off, my dance experiences have been quite occasional and sporadic. But I did enjoy throwing down now and then in my teens, in a good company.
...Also, before I learned to read (quite young), I hear I was called "The Unstoppable Force" - and then I suddenly stopped moving. So who knows how I'd be if I had stayed illiterate...

[Punky McMonsef]

Oh, now that Jihadi up'd it with video, here is the first incarnation of Kiyash and I getting caught in top secret disguises... in a Rufus Wainwright DVD.