Just because you love something doesn’t mean you’re good at it.

I don’t think there’s anything in the world I enjoy more than dancing, directly or indirectly. I love watching performances just as much as I have fun trying new classes and organizing shows.

When it came time for me to choose a field of study, I went through the usual “money vs harmony” debate and landed in business administration. I stopped dancing as it was supposed to be only a leisure activity. I stopped having leisure time period.

A few years later I went back to taking dance classes and realized that having been living so distantly from my passion had made me grow stiffer. I was becoming a no-longer-young preoccupied, demanding woman.

Wake up call for common sense.

Let’s face it: when single, it is more difficult to tolerate a dissatisfying routine. Love keeps people’s minds happily busy.

I promised myself I would never stop dancing again, even old and far from being the best. And I fairly respected my promise since then.

However, no matter how convinced I was about my place to be in the arts and culture, finding it was not so simple. Working in a cultural industry often means temporary contracts, as if all permanent positions had to be boring.

Temporary contracts mean going back and forth. Take one step left and one step right, one to the front and one to the side. Mambo #5.

But I did find a permanent position in the dance industry. I just needed to be patient. And to stand for what I’ve always known I wanted.

Life is so much simpler when we decide to focus on our strengths and interests instead of our flaws and dislikes. Who wants to be average? Truth is, when we focus on what everybody else tells us we should be good at, we lose track of what is supposed to make each one of us special.

There’s a long way to go before finding our own path in life. I like to think I’ve learnt to trust myself and that this will help me make sense in the end. I am still learning and looking for balance. Dancer values are all about generosity and courage, about trusting people and making everyone’s flow live in harmony with others.

In my opinion, nothing compares to dancing. Regardless of your education, wealth and relationship status, you are allowed to dance. You don’t need a specific outfit, tool or place, you don’t even need music. Dance comes from within.

The moment in my life when I needed to dance the most was when I was a teenager. Looking back, I’m thinking now that one way to happiness (at least mine) may be to keep our inner teen alive, not just the inner child. Although teenage years are often described as negative and turbulent, I do think that it represents a time when people strive to discover what’s fulfilling and let go of what’s fake. In my opinion, we tend to start playing a role when we step into adulthood. As teenagers, we dare to move and demonstrate more guts. We hesitate less and barely tolerate moral concessions. We don’t take betrayals easily. We are true to our feelings and often come up as stubborn.

It feels like we lose courage as we grow up.

After all, when we lose touch with who we truly feel we are, we follow a path that does not match any of our dreams. We meet people with whom we have nothing in common, or so little. We feel alone, or at least weary. If we want to share our life with someone who cares, we better start sharing our passion.

It takes two to tango.