This edition of 5 Questions is brought to you by Amanda Baima, an incredibly talented dancer and wonderful teacher. She blogs about her love for dance and life adventures at https://amandajadeblog.wordpress.com/
Why did you pursue this course?
Dance has always been my passion. I have dreamed of a career in dance whether it be a dancer or a dance instructor ever since my first dance class. My dream has always been to open up my own dance studio. I have not made that happen just yet, but I am so thankful that I got to teach dance to students at the dance studio where I grew up before I got married. I am also thankful for being able to direct EIU Dancers. I am currently a Head Start teacher, so I try and incorporate dance in my lesson plans every week. Hopefully, I will be able to fully accomplish my dream within the next few years and am looking forward to the future and seeing how God uses me.
Who encouraged and motivated you?
I have had three different women in my life (outside of my relatives) that were amazing role models for most of my life. I started dancing at the age of three and trained under Nancy Sauer. Nancy was the one who was strict in a kind way and demonstrated the hard work that a dancer needs to do all throughout their career.
After she had gotten too old to teach, one of the other teachers under Nancy worked with me as a young girl, Marty. She is still a great encouragement to me to this day and reminds me a lot of Nancy.
Wende is another great lady that has done a lot for me over the past twenty-two years. She took over Nancy’s dance studio almost eighteen years ago. She has provided me with many wonderful opportunities as far as trusting me with lead roles in shows and traveling with me (as well as other students) to numerous states for dance conventions so that we can branch out and learn from other trained professionals. To this day, we are still in contact and dance together whenever possible.
What was an obstacle that you are proud of overcoming?
Almost two years after I graduated college, I got a call from the Dean of Arts & Humanities to see if I wanted to direct the EIU Dancers (a dance company that I was a part of during my last two years of college). I was slightly shocked and extremely terrified to take on this position due to my major insecurities whenever put in a leadership position. I agreed because I loved being on EIU Dancers during my time there and wanted to produce my own showcase for the first time; get some more experience for my “dance resume.”
This was the most challenging part out of all of my years of dance. The dancers were so fixated on how the previous directors had run everything and did not like that fact that I wanted to be different. I hired an Assistant Director that graduated the same year as me and we had both danced together on EIU Dancers during our senior year. She has the same personality as me and we clicked. The same hardships that I was facing started hitting her as well. There were lots of late practice nights during that school year where we would leave practice and cry our eyes out because we had 15-20 college girls treating us with hardly any respect.
It finally got to the point where we had to bring in the Dean in for a meeting and talk with everyone. My assistant and I had so many thoughts a week about quitting versus trying to overlook what all was happening. After about five girls quit, I had felt like the worst director that ever walked the planet.
My assistant and I finally made it to opening show night; the moment of truth. To be honest, the Director side of me realized that my self-esteem was completely shot and I was not expecting good reviews from anyone. The dancer side of me was so anxious to dance in a couple of numbers and leave everything on the stage. Thankfully, the show turned out to be a huge success! The Dean ran the numbers from the previous show from the year before and we sold more seats and received more positive feedback. I was shocked, especially since we had one less show than they did the year before. That made me realize that my ideas were actually good.
When did you realize that you were on the right path?
That whole experience of directing a college dance company showed me a lot about myself and I learned how to improve myself as an instructor. I saw that it is ok to be different and that you should always listen to what you are feeling deep down in your heart. I also learned that I need to lean more on God during times like that; it makes a world of difference.
Where did you find inspiration and ideas?
The Dean really helped encourage my assistant and I during the last few months before the show. He was a great encouragement. Whenever I danced at the dance studio where I was taking lessons I would talk to my dance teacher about the problems that I was facing. I remember she told me that as a dance instructor, I will never be able to please everyone whether it be costumes, choreography, how you teach, or how you run things. She told me that she constantly faces that with dance parents. It was nice to know that someone knew exactly how I felt; especially since I tend to be a people-pleaser.
My husband and my parents were also a great encouragement. They kept telling me that I could not just give something up and that I needed to finish my job. I’ll admit that I had a lot of nights praying and literally crying to God feeling like a big baby. Once opening show night came, none of the problems were going to make me feel bad. I just wanted the show to be successful, even if I did have doubts. Any time that I was on stage, those were the moments that made every problem disappear and I felt amazing for those three minutes while I was dancing.
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Featured Photo Credit: Dominic Baima
