Dragonfly Dance

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I succeeded in the first part of this plan, but after 6 months, I decided it wasn’t for me.  I’m not entirely sure why.  Perhaps it was because my body ached all the time.  Perhaps it was because I knew I didn’t have the talent or the personality to succeed as a performer.  Perhaps it was just because I was 18 years old and wanted to get a job and move out of home.   Regardless, once I’d done it, and a year had passed, I regretted the decision, and I thought I’d closed that door forever.

​But then I started dancing again in my early 20s, at a suburban dance school, and loved it.  I was lucky that there were a few others there who were around or near my age, so I didn’t feel too out of place.  But after a few years, I was feeling frustrated. It was a childrens’ dance school after all, and we were just an add on. It was frustrating waiting years for an examiner from the UK to come out so I could complete my higher technical and teaching exam, and it was frustrating working on a wonderful dance and performing it only once at the end of year school concern.  I started wanting more.

​Look, it’s a long story, so I’ll just give you the basics. I started dreaming of creating a performance group for people like me.  I talked about it a lot, and was encouraged by the number of people who said they’d be interested in being part of that.  I decided to complete my teacher training in another way – not through the dance society system, but through the university sector completing a Graduate Diploma in Creative Industries (Dance Teaching) through Queensland University of Technology.

​In 2004, I had put together a group of performers, and we staged our first production – eMerge.  We did this another time, and then decided it was worth making it official and became an incorporated association.  We continued for a number of years.  Each year I thought the show was even better than the last.