Spotlights, live music, beautiful costumes, and graceful movements liven up the dance floor. With adrenaline rushing through my veins, I put on my biggest smile and expertly move through the steps that have been practiced thousands of times before. I look out at the crowd and feel a rise of the thrill that only an audience can provide. Everything is perfect. Everything is poetry in motion.
Saying that I love dancing is a vast understatement. For me, dancing is like walking. I suppose I might as well have skipped walking and started dancing. It feels as much a part of me as my Russian heritage. That may be a slight cliche - Russians are known to be very strong dancers - but I can honestly say that I have a true heart connection to the beautiful art of dance.
Dance has always been there for me. When my childhood in Moldova was clouded by the rule of the Soviet Union, I found dance to be a place of refuge. I watched my parents perform and felt at home in the bright lights of the stage. My earliest memories are of my parents’ dance performances, their dance campus, and the beautiful dancers that came and went through my life.
Even though my life as well as my parents’ lives were all dramatically changed by moving to Israel, dance remained a constant. We performed everywhere, on the streets, at large parties, on cruise ships, you name it. At times, I would dance so hard that my feet would bleed, but I kept going. Every chance I could, I would go out and perform with the goal to inspire and wow the audience. It was my way of finding peace in the middle of the storms that life would throw our way.
When I went out to perform nothing else mattered. Suddenly I was transported into a dream world filled with beautiful things. I had an audience there, eager to watch and be amazed by my every move. I had a place. I found that in those moments in the spot-lights, I was everything that I could have ever dreamed. The best part was knowing that I could go back and do it again and again. The feeling of belonging was so addicting. I could just dance in that moment forever. It was just me and dancing.
I’ve seen always dancing as being poetry in motion. It has had its ups and downs. Sometimes dancing is full of life and happiness, other times it is passionate and intense. No matter what, it is an avenue for channeling inner feelings. With everything my family and I have been though, dancing has always been our constant. It has kept a roof over our heads, gained us titles as Israeli champions, and allowed us to travel all around the world. Dancing has opened up doors which might have otherwise been closed to me. And for that reason, I will never stop sharing my love for dance. More than anything I want others to understand dance and see the poetic motion as relating to their stories.