Failure is a success if you learn from it!
Let’s face it Dance World… We live in a competitive arena where everything is rewarded… the good, bad, ugly, beautiful, technical, non-technical… you get the picture LOL!
Back in my day, we danced and hopefully made it back to the stage to receive a 1st-4th place trophy. I remember just sitting in the audience envying the talented dancers that beat me on that given day. I remember wanting and being determined to make it back on that stage the next time! So I did what every dancer that wanted to be successful did, I watched the rest of the competition taking mental notes on what was successful and what was not and then went back to the studio on Monday and worked my butt off!
We as dancers and as educators need to realize that “success” takes hard work and persistence. It does not happen overnight, in a month, or even in a couple years. In fact, it takes a lot of “failing.” You have to fail at something in order to know how to improve it or do it right the next time. There is never a “finish” to your dance training. Unlike a race or game, there is no end to what you can achieve. There is no grand prize trophy for the dance world to receive. So with that being said, we need to accept that there will be many more failures, hard times, and the feelings of wanting to quit because there is never and should never be an end goal.
We also live in a world where everything happens fast and at a click of a button. Dance will never be a “fast” success. I find that the patience in parents and students is pretty much nonexistent with our fast paced lives nowadays. As a result, we have parents/kids so willing to quit dance when they don’t see fast enough results or see success every time they set foot on that stage. It is a pretty unrealistic fantasy! The dance training will take years and the successes will vary! They have to understand that having bumps in the road will create the best dancers. I love seeing my students not achieve everything they want because it teaches them to keep working, to try new things, and humbles them! The ones that win a lot, have everything handed to them, and are babied… are the students that end up quitting or have the most horrible and negative attitude.
In my dancing and teaching career, I have “failed” more times than you can count! I have struggled along this bumpy road called dance but because of all that, I am the teacher I am today! I’m confident in my instruction because I have been through a lot and have been at it for many years. The more you go through in life, the wiser you become…agreed? Well then the same with dance… The more you achieve and fail, the better you will be! So embrace “failing” because FAILURE IS A SUCCESS IF YOU LEARN FROM IT!!!!
Tiffany Brooks
Dance Educator and Choreographer
