- Good day, beautiful babes!
We are back with another episode of Dancers' Corner,
sponsored by Dancewear Corner, DWC,
my fave dance retailers, check them out
at dancewearcorner.com, yeah.
All right, topic for today is: is it too late to start?
Guys, the answer is no.
I could just end this little podcast video right now,
but I won't, I'll give you my advice.
It is never too late to start dancing.
I get this question a bajillion times in my DM's,
on comments, on literally anywhere that you can contact me.
Is it too late to start dancing?
And I totally get it!
Dance is something that people generally start
at like age three, age five.
Then there's some of us who are like, "Okay, I'm 13.
"Okay, I'm 18.
"Okay, I'm 25
"Okay, I'm 40 years old.
"I'm 50, is it too late to start dancing?
"Is there even a point?"
And guess what, there is a point.
Your joy is the point.
Dance is an art that is for absolutely anyone.
It doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter your location,
it doesn't matter literally anything about you,
dance is for everyone.
There are so many styles,
there are so many different classes, studios, teachers,
physical modifications you can make to movements,
tweaks to make dance your own
and I think that is the most beautiful thing about it.
I think when it comes to this question,
the word intent comes to my mind.
You wanna show to the YouTube your Pa?
Guys, check out this trick.
Yini, say "Hi, Papa!"
(mumbles) my hand.
Hi, little pup!
Good job!
(laughs)
And we're back.
Your intent, because a little bit of tough love,
if you are starting later, I would say past the age of like,
I don't know, maybe 10, 11 years old,
and you wanna be a professional dancer,
you wanna dance for a company, you wanna be,
I don't know, a commercial dancer on TV,
it's not impossible to start late
and become a professional dancer.
I know people who have started late
and they have incredible careers right now.
But what they did do is they jumped full force into it.
So, if your intent is on this side of the spectrum,
you wanna be a professional dancer and you're starting late,
it's not impossible, don't be discouraged,
but be ready for the amount of work it takes.
You have to go full force, be in class everyday,
different styles everyday,
you need to get your foot in the door,
go to different studios, network, go to auditions,
show your face, build up the experience,
because you do have to play a little bit of catch-up
to people who have been dancing
since they were basically out of the womb.
So, my tough love with that is
if you do want to be a profesh dancer,
you gotta kick some booty, you gotta work so hard,
be diligent, be consistent
and live and breathe and eat and sleep dance.
But it is not impossible is what I want you to know.
Some of you guys are just on the other side of the spectrum,
where you just wanna dance for the joy of it,
and I think that's beautiful.
But maybe you feel a little bit embarrassed to start late
or you feel kind of awkward, you're at a weird age,
where you don't wanna be with the little little kids,
but you don't wanna be with the older kids,
because they're super advanced
or maybe there is not a good adult class around you.
So, here's the thing: you have to do your research
in turns of how you wanna learn dance.
Maybe it's just gonna be a digital thing for you,
you can follow people like Miss Auti on YouTube
and learn how to dance at home.
Those resources are there for you
specifically to teach yourself, no matter your age
or your location, or what you look like,
or anything about you, yeah?
Or you do a lot of research to find a good class.
You don't have to stick with the first one you take.
Go try different classes, try different teachers,
try different studios and find the one
that blends well with your energy,
a class that you feel good and comfortable
and that will challenge you,
but creates and foster a good environment for you
to feel encouraged and positive
and as if you have a good community around you.
So, for those of you who are like, "I just wanna dance,
"'cause I love it," who cares if you start late?
She said lovingly.
You guys, seriously, why would you let society
or the norm determine whether or not you add more joy
into your life, into your heart.
It doesn't matter if you're older,
it doesn't matter if you danced when you were little
and then you're coming back to it 20 years later,
who cares, it's for you.
So everyone else's opinions are irrelevant.
Some other stuff that I just love and this is the reason
I think dance is truly for everyone
is because it instills these life lessons in you that,
they're just invaluable, and the first thing is humility.
When you're learning something new,
you're going to suck.
You're gonna feel awkward, you're gonna feel like,
you're not the best in the room and that's okay,
that is such good practice for you.
Because eventually it'll be muscle memory
and you'll get comfortable and you'll be a beautiful dancer.
But it's good for you to go through
that kind of awkward, bumpy transition at the beginning.
Allow yourself to laugh at yourself.
Allow it, it's so fun, it brings this light-heartedness
and this humility to you
that you otherwise maybe wouldn't experience.
Another thing is dance is such a good practice
for self-love and self-acceptance.
You're dancing in front of the mirror,
you're dancing in front of other people,
and maybe at first you'll feel so insecure,
you'll feel all of these kind of icky feelings,
but guess what, right on the other side
of all of those gross feelings
is an immense amount of growth,
an immense amount of self-love and self-acceptance
to who you are, just ready for you to embrace it.
So, I hope I didn't scare you guys from taking dance.
(chuckles)
What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter
when you start, you need to know what your intent is.
So, if your intent is to be a professional,
just be ready for the amount of work,
and if you intend to just enjoy it,
than just simply enjoy it, that's it.
Our quote of the day is one I love, love, love,
and it's by George Eliot.
It reads, "It is never too late
"to be what you might have been."
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
I don't think I need to explain that one.
All right, my peeps, thank you so much for watching
and don't forget that we are on Patreon now,
so if you want more content, exclusive sneak peeks,
there's exclusive videos on there,
so things that will not be posted on YouTube
are going up on Patreon.
There's $2, $5 and $9 options.
It's just a teeny tiny bit of money to get a lot of content.
So, I love you guys so much.
Thank you for your support.
I'm so ready to jump into 2020.
Go start dancing.