I was walking in the dark behind a black curtain that hung from the ceiling. The only thing that guided me was the sound of the tap shoes from the girl in front of me. I had waited for this night for twelve years and nine months, a night where I would perform in front of a real audience. An audience who actually paid to see me dance and perform. This one night taught me about respect, determination and myself.
Nine months before the big performance was the first day of practice at the new dance academy I was attending. I was scared out of my mind and I could feel that I was scared because of the nerves inside my stomach. I walked into this room that had mirrors on the three walls and a bar attached to two of the walls. The hard wood floor reflected the gloomy lights that hung above our heads. I calmly sat down on the floor and laced up my ballet shoes. I knew I wasn't the only new girl cause you could tell by the look on the faces who was comfortable and who was scared. Everyone sat in silence for a few moments till our instructors walked into the room. All of a sudden the door opened and two men and a lady walked into the room and glanced for a long period of time at us girls. There were fifteen girls in this room, these were the girls I would learn to respect and dance with for the next nine months.
Once the dancing started and everyone started to meet people the practices went by smoother and faster. I became good friends with Gentra and Kelli. These two girls were my sidekicks; they protected me and laughed with me. Us three were best friends. Over the course of dancing you would hear about all the horror stories about dancers. I heard about girls who were anorexic, bulimic, did drugs, and overdosed on fitness pills. Sometimes before practiced started .
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you could catch girls in the bathroom doing these things to their body. My instructed once told me that the only girls who ever quit this dance academy do it because of drugs or injuries.