It’s never too late to find new hobbies. As someone who tried dance as a kid but never really enjoyed it, I instead found myself partaking in similar sports growing up, such as gymnastics and figure skating, but it’s now been many years since I was involved in either. But the end of third year is when all of that changed. One of my friends invited me to join her at the Queen’s Dance Club (QDC) end-of-year recital, as her housemates (who I also knew) were all dancers involved in the show, and there were also other mutual friends of ours who were participating as well. I remember feeling so much excitement throughout those 2.5 hours, and so I decided that in fourth year I was going to try it out myself. And looking back now, it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made going into this academic year.
In September, I chose to sign up for the Pre-advanced/Advanced Diva Bootcamp class with one of my friends who had previously taken it. We had eight weeks of classes with our lovely instructor Venessa (who is an absolute angel), and I had the absolute best time being taught by her and learning empowering choreography. Since our class was scheduled on a Sunday, it meant that regardless of how much rotting I may have done on the Saturday (if I had less work to do), I still had a fun activity to fill up part of my day that made me feel more productive on the weekends. I also found myself feeling a lot more confident during my walks home after the class, which was definitely a nice bonus!
Near the end of the semester, we had our recital, which we had spent all of those weeks preparing for. Prior to this year, I can’t remember the last time I had been on a stage, especially in front of that many people. I was so incredibly nervous, worrying that I would forget the moves or slip up during our performance. Despite the anxiety, I pushed through, and the adrenaline I felt while walking off the stage and hearing the crowd cheer, it was truly electrifying. Obviously because of that, I also participated in it this semester, in the same exact class, again with the lovely Venessa. I enjoyed it this semester just as much as I did the last, and it makes me wish I had tried getting more into dance as a kid, despite not enjoying it much at the time. My only regret about joining QDC is that I didn’t join it sooner.
Now that I’m graduating, I unfortunately have no more time left with QDC, and while I’m sad I found out about it so late, I’m grateful for it being something I was able to partake in, which made my last year of undergrad even more special than I could’ve imagined. If you’re looking to try out something new, I definitely recommend you try it out! They teach so many styles of dance, you’re guaranteed to find something you’ll enjoy. And they also have drop-in classes before the actual registration period, which gives you a chance to get a feel for them before making the semester-long commitment.
Thanks for all the great memories QDC, I’m going to miss it.