First Encounter

I started taking ballet classes at the age of 3. At that time, I was not interested in dancing at all nor knew anything about this form of art. It’s just the sudden temptation of my parents. They took me to a local mid-autumn festival, and when the music turned on, I jumped straight to the stage and started grooving (Until now I just could not figure out why I did that — I was too little at that time to understand anything). The exact groove in hiphop, which now I have to learn again from the basics. And my parents stood down there, looked up at the stage in awe — and did what a typical Asian parents would do — they though I was good at dancing and signed up for that ballet class for me.

Maybe I would be one of the early-nurtured talent, trained intensively and then perform around the world in the age of 18. But that’s not my case.

After 2 years or so, I dropped. Because I just didn’t understand what I was doing, since there was no particular purpose. I told my parents I was not interested, and they agreed for me to not take the classes anymore. They thought dance is just a hobby, and I had better studying Algebra and Calculus and all that things — I was 5 and that’s the time everybody was having their kids prepared for primary school.

And I totally forgot about dance and focused on my study almost I became a nerd — I got good grades, always completed all my homework, was the teachers’ pet — You named it.

The Second Chance

I did not engage in any physical activities — to the point that I created an unbeatable streak of 10 years of having some kind of flu or fever every 6 months. I didn’t think I was lazy to do any workout and instead blamed my body was weak since I was born and I had better accept the truth, and that’s it. End of story.

But in my eight grade, a lot of things changed.

At that time, my dad finally could afford an Internet connection with WiFi cable and stuffs, which opened myself to the whole new world — the Internet. I saw wonderful things and talented people.

And again, that was the second time I’ve ever seen dance in my life, and I totally felt in love with it. I had to give it a second shot.

I told a friend of mine about these dancers who can control their body like robots and he loved that right away. We started learning and training, performed new tricks we’ve learned, and gave each other critiques. We both also are the captains of the Taekwondo class in our school — the strength and the stamina obtained from the martial art really help us with our dance.

But things did not last for long. We both graduated from the secondary school and then went study in different high schools. Now I am alone. But not really lonely.

What now?

Deciding for something to be part of your world is a hard choice and some what courageous, because it requires consistency and your love for it.

I was not serious with dance until recently — and I quickly realized that it is hard to keep dancing by just training — I have to let dance become parts of my life and parts of other aspects. And so I chose writing to get started.

Hardship is inevitable, so love what you do. 

— Sorah Yang

Documenting the process helps me know what I have done, what I am doing and what I will do next. And share the world things that I love! I hope my journey could bring value and share some problems with you, not only in this form of art but any fields you’ve chosen to pursue.

Until next time,

Keep going!