DANCE AND ME !!!

It all started with my first program in Kg-1. I was 4 years old. I was among the good number of 20 children who were selected to dance on some rhymes during school annual function [Mary Mount School, Aizawl]. The four year old kid felt like some celebrity, dancing on stage. How much I admired the claps at the end of the show. Who knew the clapping sounds are going to be a part of my life in near future?

I remember insisting my dad to keep singing for me and I used to dance on his every number, regardless of understanding the lyrics...just kept dancing and dancing until my father became tired and pleaded me to stop.

The turning point in my life was during my winter vacation in class 2. I came to my maternal uncles’ place and co-incidentally there was a dance program. I was prepared by my aunts to dance in the program just to make my vacation more meaningful. It was a competition but I went for just a performance. The program went nice. After the function was over, an old man of 60 years [judge of the competition] went up to the stage and said “I wish the little girl who had just danced [tats me] participated in the competition, she would have grabbed the prize”…those motivating words by a dancing guru filled my parents with emotion and they started dreaming of their daughter becoming a good dancer in near future. Nobody had the idea that the old man on stage , praising their daughter, will one day groom their daughter into a dancer…Yes he happens to be my teacher who taught me dance for long 8 years and one day left me alone , the world…an eternal soul..

But life was not that easy. When we shifted to Assam, my mom got me admitted to a private dance class. I was welcomed very cunningly by two girls there who were already good in their profession. I still remember how much they laughed at me for the every move I made wrong. They ridiculed, criticized, making my time more difficult. I started losing confidence. They denied dancing with me, I being a horrible dancer then. But we had to dance together on a school program [both being from the same school], I remember my own friends criticizing me and comparing me with that particular girl...thank to all. They made my determination more strong. Finally I left learning dance coz I could not take the harassment more. May be I couldn’t stay dominated for long. But then came the real change when my father took me to a dancing school where that old judge was the teacher. My life turned. He taught me, choreographed my every step, and helped me to modify my every move, always with a smiling face. Years passed learning and performing. I never saw that girl again but during my 9th standard, we again came across on a dance program. We were standing together in the selection procedure. Her name was called first and she was given a good position and then my name followed and I was made to stand in front of her. The words still ring on my ears when she was asked to follow me while I shall lead the dance. So the ugly duckling suddenly turned into a beautiful swan...I could realize I was a good dancer by then…So…NO LOOKING BACK

I joined different clubs, kept performing every month, won prizes. I still remember one of my dance examiners who came to me, put his hand on my head and said “Alina I never want you to leave dancing, you’ll be famous one day”…. Life always does not give what you demand. It brings options, brought some in my life as well and I chose the option where I had to leave my dancing behind me and walk on.

The tragedy came when I started performing nationally. I performed in Delhi, Halflong and was about to have some programs in Mumbai and Ahmedabad…But I had to leave dancing. My parents were shocked and probably will never forgive me for this. But you cannot get everything in life.

My sir kept calling me, insisting me but nothing could bring me to stage. And one day I got the news that my sir left us all. His body was taken for funeral but I didn’t go to see that. How could I...I didn’t have the courage to face him when he was alive and I didn’t want to see his body. I wanted to have the last impression of his smiling face. I am sorry sir…I really am…

Life is all about sacrifices…Anyways this is not the end…