eight years ago...

Two gals from one on my Zumba classes asked me if I used to be a dancer.

Well... sort of.

When I was a toddler my mom sent me to dance class. Ballet, tap, gymnastics, baton. I hated baton 'cause I kept hitting myself with it. And I could always do the routine alone in my bedroom, but not in class. Timing with the baton never worked itself out.

I was too much of a scaredy-cat for gymnastics. And my upper body wasn't strong enough to hold myself up on the double bars. I could never get across the monkey bars on the playground either.

So I stuck with ballet and tap for a very short time. Plus I was a little black girl at this white dance school and they weren't bringing it. Let's just say they were a little stiff. I thought the lessons were a waste of my parent's hard earned money so I told my mom I didn't want to go back.

I did choreograph my own contemporary ballet number for my 3rd grade talent show to Strawberry Shortcake's version of "Over the Rainbow." That is when I developed my trademark one-handed round-off cartwheel into the splits. Ah, the crown loved it!

In junior high and high school I was a cheerleader. But it wasn't until my junior and senior year I was on the dance squad.

I always had an appreciation for dance, but I never formally trained. In my mid 20s I was living in Detroit and I joined this black dance school called City in Motion (they are no longer open). They had an adult class and the children there were super talented.

Many of the ladies in the class were parents of the students there. Our teacher was a Rockett and she decided to make us into a competition group. I was 26 at the time and my other friend was a couple of years younger than me. The other women were in their 30s and early 40s. But we rocked it! We even beat out some young 18-year-olds.

Our song was a remix of Whitney Houston's, "It's Not Right But It's Okay." So we had attitude! At the finale of our routine I did my trademark one-handed round-off cartwheel into the splits while everyone posed behind me.

I can't believe that was 8 years ago!



And yes... I can still do my trick :)

Happy MLK day and Inauguration day!