New Friends and New Paths

Yesterday I met with another dancer who has recently moved to my area. She is a Raqs Sharki and Cabaret dancer and is looking to really start tapping into the market here. She wanted to talk to me about us doing things together. She has been dancing longer than I have and has a background in other dancers. We dance different styles and I do not have the background she does, but I think that this is going to be great.

I really cannot express how excited I was to meet her. I have not had the best experience with other dancers in the area being supportive. I understand competition. Competition is healthy. It keeps us on our toes and keeps us learning. However, if you only want to crush someone for the sake of crushing them, and so that one dancer can have a monopoly on the area, then how can anyone learn at all. If there is only one instructor, are we really being fair to our students by not giving them the opportunity to learn from as many people as possible? If we alienate ourselves from one another, how are we going to to learn from each other?

This woman agreed with me whole heartedly on that. She's a professional and, from what I gather, she is very technical too. One thing that scares me is that she has come into a lot of people who just want to do it for a hobby, not for professionalism. I'm afraid that this will frustrate her. However, I might be underestimating these areas. She wants to come to the hafla we have coming up and perhaps do a choreography with me. I think it will be fantastic.

It is so refreshing to have someone here that wants to actively talk with me about these things. There are other dancers in other towns that love to talk dance, but none closer than an hour. This woman is as on fire as I am it seems. I can't wait to see where God is taking me with this. There are so many possibilities.