11. Dance

Noticing a theme here? Figure skating, choreography, and now dance.
In case you haven't noticed yet, I love creative movement. It started (rather embarrassingly) with watching an episode of Dance Moms on YouTube. I was instantly drawn to how effortlessly the dancers were able to convey a story through the simplest of movements. I started watching more and more dance videos, in many of the different styles. Lyrical and ballet pieces are my favorite, being (in my opinion) the most expressive.  And I can at least hope to be able to mimic the dancers some day....

Not counting ballet classes when I was six, and a few lyrical classes for skating, I have never taken dance in my life. I've never learned the turns or jumps that most dancers would consider basic. But I have discovered something: the turning movement from figure skating spins translates incredibly well to turning off the ice. I can't spot to save my life, because it's something you would never do in a skating spin. But the basic mechanics of it is the same, and you get that same exhilarating rush of the wind in your face.

I just got my first pair of ballet shoes, and I think I might be in love. On a good day, I can do a triple pirouette, and my record for fouettés is eight. I'm sure that my technique is horrible, but, I honestly don't care. When I do a turn, it's not to make it perfect; it's to enjoy it. Just moving with the music changes everything; it feels like your body is creating the music, creating this unified force of the senses.

Nothing makes me feel more alive than dancing.

10. Choreography

So typically, when I'm in a lesson with my coach, we work on jumps, or spins, or (my least favorite), my program. But in the past few weeks, we've been doing something a little different: choreography. In this case, it's not even necessarily for a program that we'll add to later, or even set to music, but rather a series of cool-looking movements that happen to flow well together. Most of the time it's just improvisational, moving to whatever comes to mind. It's not as polished-looking as a program that you practice daily, but there's something so raw and true about expressing what you feel through your body. There's no hiding behind the veil of robotic, practiced steps; whatever movement you make has to come directly from you. On the one hand, it makes you incredibly vulnerable, like having your heart cut open and the secrets pouring out for all the world to see. But on the other hand, it's also incredibly liberating, because who are we to be judged for the steps that we take? There is no right way, and there is no wrong way. There is only movement.