Dance is an addiction in the soul. Once someone takes it in, they can never really get it out of their system. It’s a need. Some professional dancers “retire” and settle down to raise a family or seek a so-called normal life, but often end up as choreographers or maybe dance writers. There is the example of a child who grows up in one of our schools who moves on to college to major in accounting or law and earns a degree, only to become a dance teacher or director of their own school. It’s what they always wanted in the first place, but they played it safe by “having something to fall back on.” There are those dance addicts who do get out of the physical part of dancing, but they’re often the ones who bring their children to our schools, or are those who support the dance community by attending performances or serving on boards of dance companies. More than likely, a person who has experienced the passion returns to the dance life, in one guise or another. The addiction I’m referring to doesn’t come in a pill or liquid form; it’s a feeling—a kind of euphoria that takes over when we hear the music and start to move our body. Then the sweat or the pain seems to actually enhance the feeling. Another place it often occurs is when we’re on stage sharing our passion with an audience—that’s the ultimate! What I’m writing about isn’t easy to explain to those who don’t share this good addiction. Some of those we might try to justify it to would think we were nuts if we tried. That’s okay with me. I know it’s a gift that doesn’t need to be explained—it needs to be cherished and passed on to as many people as possible. This is what’s so great about the dance field and teaching. We experience with our own eyes the positive difference that dance makes in the lives of anyone we have the opportunity to pass it on to. It’s something that we can be proud to impart to the next generation, just like the teacher(s) who passed it on to us, and the teachers who passed it on to them. It’s a thousand year process. Certainly this passionate life isn’t always euphoric. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with balancing our passion with our day-to-day needs. Our personal lives and our families must be priorities, too. When I talk with teachers about their issues, their concerns are rarely related to “passing on the passion.” Usually they are about balancing it with everything else. To truly cherish our gift, we do need to achieve a balance. The non-dance and the dance stuff must coexist in our lives. True happiness for the dance addict requires both—the personal side inspires the professional side and vice versa. The better the balance, the better the life! •