As dancers we spend a great deal of time in front of the mirror.  Often times as dance teachers we are giving directions to our students by looking at our their reflection.  They are watching us in the mirror for how to move, where to go next and what type of emotion is necessary.  We lead by reflection.  That was never more clear to me than at our studio’s Halloween party.  Four of my students dressed up as me!  My first reaction was “Wow!  What an honor”.  My next reaction was “Wow, they are really watching me”.  The girls came dressed in brightly colored t-shirts and black leggings. They took every moment that they could to shout out the benefits of the iliopsoas muscle and each girl carried a sparkly notebook that they proceeded to dance with it as I often do as I  read my choreography while I teach it! Later that night I started to think about what could have been if I didn’t dress and act the way I do.  Years ago I remember watching a teacher at a dance competition surrounded by her students.  The teacher was slouched over with a sour look on her face and all of her dancers looked exactly like her.  I became very aware of the fact that our students are not just looking to us for how to hold themselves in dance class; they are looking to us for how to carry themselves in life.  Not long after the Halloween party, another student of mine told me, as she watched me drink out of a green Publix water bottle, that when she was younger she thought if she drank water out of a water bottle like mine that she would become a great dancer.  Here it was again, my actions being reflected back to me.  This was obviously a message I needed to hear.  As I move through this incredible life I get to live, I realize that my students are not just watching me for how to execute a degage or a grand battement, they are watching me to see what to wear, how to hold themselves and how to treat those around them.  As teachers, they are listening to the words we use and the context in which we use them.  It is an honor to be a dance teacher.  It is an honor to love other people’s children as if they were your own.  And it is a huge responsibility to present to these children a positive and energetic example of how to make their way through this life.  When I look at my students I am proud; not just of how they dance but of how they love and share.  I am proud of their smiles and of the friendships they have cultivated.  I am excited about the good that they will do in this world and I pray that even if it is a very small part of who they are, there is some of me that I see in their reflections.

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I always wanted to be famous.  It has been the one consistent dream I have had since childhood.  I watched movies, television shows, musical theater and ballet performances as if I were the one saying the lines, doing the 32 fouette turns, or belting out a classic show tune.  I couldn’t wait for it to happen!  The song Fame sums it up perfectly for me- “I want to live forever, I want to learn how to fly high. Remember my name.”  I could feel it in my bones, this was going to happen for me.  I trained hard as a dancer, participated in my high school musicals and eventually got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at York University.  On the day of the dance department’s graduation party, I auditioned for the Toronto Argonaut Sundancers (Canadian Football League) and got the job!  I thought I had made it!  I had spent the last four years of my life studying modern dance and ballet predominantly and now here I was going to kick up my legs and cheer for a football team.  It didn’t pay much but it was my first taste of being a celebrity.  We had our picture in the paper, we did public appearances and nothing could compare to the feeling of running onto the field at the Sky Dome to dance at a game.  I was so very content with my life until one day at a charity event I was gushing about how great this job was and a fellow dancer looked at me and said “Yeah, this okay but I want a real dance job.”  My eyes were opened.  She showed me a bigger picture with just a few words.  You know what?  I want a real dance job too!  So off I went to pursue a bigger job in the dance world.  I quickly landed a job working on the island of St. Maarten, dancing in a show called “An Evening at La Cage”.  From there I went on to dance on cruise ships, theme parks and tours.  I was very happy, but I never became famous. In 2001, my husband at the time and I decided that we needed a more settled, stable life and we moved from New York City to Franklin, Tennessee (his home town).  I was to take a job as a dance instructor at his mother’s dance studio, Ann Carroll School of Dance and he was to work with a production company based out of Nashville.  I will never forget the first day that I worked at the dance studio and I was introduced as Miss Laura.  The name felt important, I felt important.  After the first hour of being Miss Laura, I knew I had found my home.  I knew that this was who I had always wanted to be.  When I walk into the studio and I hear my students shout out “Miss Laura!”  “Hi Miss Laura!” “Hey Miss Laura!”, I am filled with joy.  It is the sweetest sound I have ever and will ever hear.  Every day that I receive that greeting I am aware that this is my claim to fame.  That I am famous to the children I teach.  To them I am the celebrity I always dreamed I would be and I am overwhelmed with God’s response to my dreams.  We dream unabashedly and hope they will come true.  The way in which they come to fruition is not for us to decide.  And today and every day I am glad for that.