My Hips Don’t Lie: I Was Made to Dance

By Tanya

I was born to dance.  My mom can tell countless stories of me as a baby doing the “gooby down dance” (my mom's name for my baby bopping) to any music being played.  And of the million times I made her watch the dance performances I choreographed for myself and the neighborhood kids. Dancing has always been a way that I can express myself. When I dance every part of my being feels connected and alive. I feel fully free and fully me.

But somewhere around the 4^th grade I started to gain weight and become self-conscious.  The once outgoing and fun loving girl I was became shy and introverted. I allowed my insecurities to steal my joy and silence my voice.  Afraid of what others would think, I stopped dancing. 

Of course without dance I continued to gain more weight and withdrew further into myself. I stayed in that dark place for three years until the 7^th grade when I was given the choice to take traditional P.E. or Dance for my physical education credit. By that time I was pretty out of shape.  I knew I loved to dance and the thought of running the torturous mile in P.E. class made my decision pretty easy.  

What I didn’t realize was that the final for Dance class was to perform our dance pieces in a recital for our parents and friends.  When I became aware of this, images of an elephant in a tutu flashed in my mind but the more I continued to dance the more I came out of my shell. I may have been self-conscious when I put on my tight fitting dance costume, but the moment I stepped out on the stage and felt the music none of that mattered. 

High School Dance Team

I spent the next six years dancing an average of four hours a day. I would spend half of my school day dancing at a performing arts high school and the other half at a regular high school.  After school I would dance again with their dance team.  As you may remember from my history, after high school I once again stopped dancing. All my weight and insecurities came rushing back.  

Three years ago I started running because it fit into my schedule as a busy wife and mother of two. I found a love for running and used it as a tool to get back into shape.  For the first time in a long time, I felt comfortable in my skin again. The first two years were great but as I continued to run, my body began to protest.  For the past year I have been plagued with injuries and chronic pains.

During this time I have seen many different specialists and tried a plethora of  techniques to rid myself of constant pain in my hips and back.  Each specialist came to the same conclusion: I have a muscle imbalance causing an overcompensation in my quad muscles.  This leads to a very tight TFL and IT band.

As a dancer, I live my life with my hips turned out and my tail bone tucked under. This is a wonderful way to keep my body centered for dance, but apparently not the best position when my body is pounding the pavement a million times when running.

Each specialist reassured me that if I used his or her technique and was patient enough, I could stretch and retrain my body to be more conducive to running. No matter what I tried my pains continued, even when I stopped all physical activity for two months and just stretched! 

Convinced that something had to be wrong in my body I decided to go get X-rays done to see where my pain was coming from. The x-rays showed nothing abnormal. In fact the Doctor said that my bones look great and are perfectly designed to dance!  After the results I posted his diagnosis on Facebook.  My step-mom's response? - “Well than dance!” So that is exactly what I did. 

I took my painful body and I began to dance. Guess what happened? I started to feel better. Not only that, the more I dance the better I feel! My quads are still tight but as I continue to use the stretching techniques I have learned they are slowly becoming more loose and flexible. I have also begun to add back in some cross training. I have been swimming and have even added in bit of running. Overall, I am feeling pretty good.

I’ll be honest.  It was a tough year.  As always, the Lord has taught me so many things through it. I have been brought back time again to Proverbs 16:9, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” (NIV)  Since I have started dancing again new opportunities to dance just keep presenting themselves. I guess my steps are meant to be leaps.

Of this I’m certain: when I dance, I feel free, balanced, and connected to my Creator.  It's how I was made to be. I was made to dance!

"I praise you God because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  Psalm 139:14