Danser est Vivre.

You disrespect dance, you disrespect me.

Warning [may occur when you disrespect dance]: A sudden foot in the face.

Dance is what I live for.

It takes watching dance to remind me why I'm here.  It takes dancing to remind everyone else why I'm here.  I am not the best, but I am not the worst.

And someday I hope to inspire others like the dancers I've seen tonight-

SYTYCD, EVERYONE!! IT'S BACK!!

-to remember why they live too.

You can't describe that fierce passion you get, deep in your chest

where they tell you the heart is

when you dance.  You can't full explain

the love between those blessed people

that have dance in their lives, but let me try.

The connection between a dancer and dance is as indescribable as that of which a mother to a child.  It connects on so many levels; physical, of course, but emotional, spiritual, mental as well.  To dance, you must have soul, you must have spirit and so much heart.  Dancing is so much more than flailing limbs and muscule strength and the ability to remember a combination; it's connecting to something that not everyone can tap.  It's connecting to something otherworldly, and yet, it is contained deep within us.  One of the biggest differences between a dancer and someone moving in rhythm is that you have to love what you do.  If you dance, if you truly love it, it doesn't matter how long you've been dancing, or how flexible or skinny you are, you are a dancer.  Dancing takes incredible strength.  The strength to endure throughout intense physical pain, the strength to endure throughout intense emotional pain.  I can't tell you how often I've cried, either in class or at home, because I don't feel like I can do something, because someone else makes it look so easy.  But all dancers have felt that.  It's normal and natural and it's part of building us up to be the best dancers we can be.  I don't know how often I've endured small injuries-whether it be a torn off toenail or a twisted ankle-and had to keep going.  Because if you injure yourself before a performance, you still have to go on.  If you injure yourself on stage, you can't let it show.  You must keep smiling and finish the performance as though nothing happened.  In a sport game, if you get injured, you usually get a substitute; if anything, you get a few minutes to regain yourself and finish out the game.  But in dance, there is no time to let yourself be weak.

So to those who say dance isn't a sport, fine.  You're right.  Dance is much harder than a sport because not only does it include the physicality of sports, it adds in emotional.  It adds in art.  Dance is not just a sport, or an art, it is a beautiful mixture of both.  And you will not find anything better than the combination of those two bases.

Miss Dani:  We will be getting together soon.

Love, Laura.

P.S.  I'm not kidding about the foot in the face, people.  I don't care if you don't like dance; around me, you better at least respect it.