Many may argue that the professional dance world is one of many struggles. Indeed the professional dance world requires a lifelong commitment and its upbringings enlightens a road of many struggles, but what many do not realize is that with great struggle comes an even greater reward. Those of us, who chose to dance, decided to do it because regardless of the struggle we love what we do. Many may argue that the professional dance training illustrates a path of which many children lose their opportunity to a "normal" childhood. Many may even go to the extent of stating that such training is child abuse. However, what many of them do not know is that those of us who dance are born to dance. Moreover, as parents, both from dance and non-dance backgrounds, recognizing the love to dance in their children leads them to support and pursue their careers. Thus leading them into training at a young age, which as many of us know that it is the key to a successful dance career. As a dancer, I came to the conclusion that training enhanced my abilities to think and deal with certain life situations in an effective way, and also that dance training gave me an "edge" opposed to many "non-dancers" in a job or academic environment. Although training has its many downfalls as presented by many, its rewards and benefits are far more weighted than the struggles. I come to make a claim that dance training not only leads a dancer to success in the dance field but also in life. In addition, I raise the question of child development in the dance environment and the formation of character and personality through training and its lifelong effects. From childhood to adulthood, the qualities acquired by consistent training (both dance and other forms such as athletic or musical) remains throughout life and shapes an individual to achieve greatness. 

Dancers start their training as little as three years of age. Starting early gives the dancer an advantage over all of the other dancers in the long run when the time comes to start auditioning for roles or companies. Ballet dancers in one hand, have to start their training early. There are many ballerinas and only a few roles to be filled. A ballet dancer's career is very short lived, ending at age twenty-five to thirty. Therefore, starting early for ballet dancers is essential for a fruitful career. Out of the classical ballet world, dance becomes a little less strict but very demanding nonetheless. Starting training at three years of age can mean the possibly of a career at age eighteen. Taking a psychological approach to child development, dance child development presents many great outcomes as well as many flaws. In between the ages three to five is the stage many psychologists call the "sensitive years". Here the child undergoes development of many important areas of the brain. The environment in which the child is exposed to during these years shapes both the child's personality and behavior. In the dance world, a child develops just as any other child would outside of the dance world but everything is pushed a little further. Where a child outside the dance environment would learn motor skills by playing outside or going into a classroom setting, in a dance class the child learns motor skills by using dace technique. This also heightens the child's hand to eye coordination and develops the critical thinking skill. By going to a dance studio, older dancers surround the child, and often the children get to watch them in class. This dance environment (the pressure, the drama, the competition, the hard work) in the studio also contributes to the child's development. The children develop faster and mature quicker due to the demands of the dance field. This raises the question of how to devote to dance training in a professional level without "robbing" our children of their childhoods. With no doubt a great concern about dance training or any training in general in a rigorous field like dance or any sports is the level of commitment required at a young age. Indeed the child spends more time at the dance studio than anywhere else but if it is something that the child loves to do and wants to pursue it, in the end their childhood was well spent and not lost. It becomes dance recitals and rehearsals, going on dance competitions and hanging out with dance friends rather than sitting at home watching cartoons or playing with school friends. A child never really loses their childhood completely; dance becomes their childhood, in a developmental way setting them apart from the rest of the world. 

Parenting is something dance teachers around the world do with their students. They teach them life lessons through dance training and "shape" their personalities and abilities. I started dancing at the age of fifteen. I had two years of ballet training from when I was five years old. I was placed in class with ten to twelve year olds who had been dancing since the age of three and could do so much more than what I could. I would watch them dance and perform each step perfectly, their legs were up to their ears and noses, their feet were perfectly pointed, and here I was with absolutely no technique or flexibility but I had what many people did not, the drive to do better. I worked twice as hard in class and at home to get better and eventually caught up to them. Without my teachers to help me through it, I would not have made it to where I got my senior year. Much like parenting my teachers would teach me lessons in life through dance and help me achieve the best that I could possibly achieve. Nonetheless, they had their favorites and I was not one of them most of the time. According to Franklin Stevens, the author of Dance as Life "the dancer, as student, becomes a child of the teacher. However, not the one child among many to be equally cherished equally nurtured. The teacher, as parent, is totally biased, totally prejudiced, and plays favorites with quiet intensity from the very beginning. This one is fat, and it doesn't look like the kind of baby fat that comes off. Forget her. After two years that one still moves as if she were on stilts. Forget her. That one has knock-knees. Forget him. That one is growing too tall, but she moves well and has a good back. Keep an eye on her. That one is a natural and has everything and she loves to move. God bless. Nurture. Cherish. Work on her. That one started too late. Not enough time to learn now, the body too old and set now (at fourteen or fifteen). Could have been possible a few years ago, but not now. Gone forever now. A pity. Forget her"(Stevens, 9). This is the reality of most professional level studios. Teachers are after talent, for those that do not have it and cannot acquire it with time, they become ghosts in the class. They are there and corrected to serve as example to the others. They will receive attention and "nurture" because they paid, but never as much as the favorites. Throughout high school, I danced at my public school. I love my high school dance teacher; even now after I graduated, I still talk to her and sometimes demonstrate at her classes. I was not her favorite throughout the four years I was in high school. That cost me a spot in the dance company my first three years and finally in my senior year she decides that I am good enough to be an understudy and lets me into the team. Throughout my senior year, I was put in the back and felt like I wasn't being looked at by my teacher. The favorites where the ones getting the roles they wanted in the major production we have in the fall, and getting the better places in the group dances. Favorites will always be part of dance, just like the rejection and anxiety that coastally lurks around the dance environment. As a child developing in the dance world, leaning to deal with the feelings that such situations like these presents is essential to a successful career. That is when maturity and persistence takes place in one's personality. These are the moments that make or break a dancer. Finding something to work for, something inspiring, make very well be what pushes some of our great dancers to achieve greatness. 

Motivation is something that is hard to maintain as the years in dance continue. As little children, the thought of becoming a dancer is enough. When they see the big girls dancing, they want to be just like that so they work harder to be able to do the things they see in the studio. Also television shows and performances influences both young and older dancers into working harder than ever before to be able to do what they say in those shows. According to Jim Taylor and Ceci Taylor authors of the Psychology of Dance "Motivation, in its most basic form, involves the ability to initiate and persist at a task. Applied to dance, motivation is the capacity for dancers to persist in the face of boredom, fatigue, pain, and at the desire to do other things"(Taylor and Taylor, 20). Motivation is the main thing in the dance world that creates a good dancer. Self-motivation is something learned at a young age in the dance world, along with responsibility and persistence. In addition, competition is another big concept acquired in the dance world at a young age. Motivation is something required to live, with no motivation we, as people would not be able to get out of bed in the morning or enjoy everything around us. It would lead to a depressing life with no light. Motivation brings light into life, and in the dance world it servers the same purpose. As dancers we love what we do, but that doesn't always mean we always want to do it. I can't even remember all the times I ran to my mother begging her to let me stay home and not go to dance class. It is stressful, it is hard, and it takes a lot on your mind and body. Plenty of times I was tired from a long day at school and just wanted to sit and watch a movie and relax and skip out on dance class, but motivation was something that I needed to get me to go to class. Learning how to be self-motivated through dance not only helped me become a better dancer but also helped me as a person. With dance, you have to go to class every day and give it your all in order to achieve something in class. You can't mark the steps, you can't rest on the barre, you have to take class and perform just like you would on stage. Dance class is what builds a dancer. I good training brings up a good dancer. Now in life, countless times I procrastinate with schoolwork and house work. Being self-motivated in dance has taught me how to be self-motivated in life. Motivation to me comes from a place where I want to be better; in dance it translates into being better than the girl next to me, reaching farther into myself and finding the connection between my mind and my body in way that I can be the best I can possibly be at all times in my dancing. It is looking at a performance and thinking to myself that I can do that if I try hard enough, that is what motivates me in dance. Translating that into life becomes the feeling of achievement, knowing that I can do it or I can also fail at it, but it is the trying part that counts. Always open to try new things, always prepared for whatever may our way, we as dancers come from different backgrounds and believes but we all share the same struggle and achievements, and mainly we all share the same passion; the love for what we do. For most that translates into life, dance becomes a big jar of life experiences that can be used to relate to real life experiences. This is all achieved by training, regardless of when training started; the sooner you learn motivation the easier dance becomes. 

Expanding a little more on motivation, there are many ways one can be motivated in the dance world. From TV shows to live performances, dancers and non-dancers everywhere have been inspired one time or another by a dance piece they watched. A couple examples of these are the TV shows So You Think You Can Dance and Dance Moms. So You Think You Can Dance is a competition where dancers around the nation audition to try to make it into the top 20 dancers who them get to compete on national television and have a shot in becoming America's best dancer. Here you see the best of the dance world in one place. They take various dance styles and the dancers have to compete with whatever style they were randomly selected to have. In today's dance society, being a versatile dancer is something that will open opportunities left and right. This competition captures that in its essence. It is very inspiring for everyone to see these dancers grow as dancers and people throughout the show. For our young and old generation of dancers this TV show is an example of how to achieve greatness the correct way. In the other hand, we have Dance Moms. This show is about a competition studio who competes every weekend at various cities across the US. Abby Lee Miler is the director and choreographer for the studio. Her competition team consists of a group of 6 to 14 year old girls. These girls go through intense training, and Abby puts a lot of pressure on them to perform well. She has a "pyramid" system where the best kid gets the top and the others get to fall throughout the pyramid according to their performance. She also has this theory of "tough love" with her girls. She wants to teach them that the professional dance world is not easy or pretty. Her methods are questionable but the outcome of her "tough love" theory are awards after awards. Personally, I do not agree with some of the things she does to the children but I can see where that could benefit them in the long run. As part of her studio contract, the kids are required to be in class for a certain amount of hours per day every day.  According to Franklin Stevens "More and more of the student's life becomes occupied with dance. Like those Hassidic Jewish children who hurry from home to Hebrew school and Hebrew school to home, shoulders bent and faces pale from long hours of study, the boy's long curls bobbling beside their ears, a group set distinctly apart from other American children, dancers trot daily from elementary or high school to dance class and rehearsal (not pale, or with shoulders bent, but with that quietly vigorous glow of basic health which most dancers have even as they grow older)"(Stevens 15). At Abby's studio, some of her dancers are homeschooled so that they would have more time to dance and time for themselves. Dance is a commitment to be motivated no matter the circumstance in which you are in. These girls in Abby's dance studio have a level of commitment that is required from someone much older, thus showing how they matured faster due to their environment.  Here, Abby is teaching the kids how to survive in the dance world. Professionally, the dance world is not a nice and "friendly" place. What teachers try to teach their students who are in the professional road (even those who are not) at their developmental phase is to be mentally and physically strong to overcome anything in their path. Ballerina, a documentary about the Russian ballerinas illustrates the journey of a dancer from childhood to adulthood. This movie shows how rigorous ballet training can be and what it takes to become a prima ballerina. Not quite as dramatic as Dance Moms, here the dancers undergo a very rigorous training from day one of auditions to their very last performance before becoming professional dancers. Whether here in the US or across the globe to Russia, dancers undergo a hard journey that not always turns out great, but since the beginning of training as kids they learn to deal with any situation presented to them along the way. 

According to Jim Taylor and Ceci Taylor "The only way to improve in any area- whether physical, technical, artistic, or mental- is through commitment, hard work, and patience. Time and effort must be expended on every aspect of training, including physical, technical, and mental preparation" (Taylor and Taylor, 2). Much like dance sports hold a same concept when it comes to training and having a successful career. Whether a dancer, an athlete, or a musician, training and determination shapes the outcome of the one's development. Because of persistence, maturity and discipline (among many other traits acquired by training) we stand out among the "average" person. In contrast to someone who did not train or developed in a dance (or athletic) environment, we who did train and committed to rehearsals and class, and overcame the physical and metal strains have a "superiority" and a greater maturity level than the average person. Although there is a separation between the "dance world" and the "real world", we can come together as a society and embrace both worlds in way that is beneficial to both. Professional dance is a way of life, is a career. Besides professional dancing, dance is therapeutic in many levels to those who do want to follow the professional path. Dance is something everyone should try at some point in life. Besides the obvious health benefits it helps your mind and soul. I conclude this paper not giving an end to a journey but raising a beginning to a bigger one. Questioning, "Where do I go from here?"  has always been a reoccurring question in my life. So, where do I go from here now that I've went through those "finding" years? I say that now I can go anywhere I can possibly want to go in both the dance world and the professional world. With the experienced gained from my dance training I can do anything that I set my mind to do; just like I did dancing. Therefore, this is not an end to our journey but only the beginning of something bigger.
