The judges look at you right in the eye as you go, the music is left in the background as your thoughts are what saturates your mind; and even though what you are doing is what fills your heart, at that point, all you want to do is finish. After you have been on your toes the whole dance, you’ve raised your leg higher than 90 degrees, you’ve smiled through the pain, and have hit every jump, step and point on time, ending the routine is what you are looking forward to. You consider those minutes a burning hell, where all you gotta do is push harder and harder, because in that moment it's all about competing rather than enjoying.  

I started dancing at the age of 2, but discovered Irish dance until the age of 8, and since then we’ve been inseparable. I have to say, as the majority of the dances, it is unbelievably demanding, yet somehow I’m still on it. Competitions are the worst, not just in the sense that you are next to someone to prove you are better, but more in the way that it’s all about judging in order to find the weakest one of all. They pick at your steps, your points, or how polished your shoes look, how high your socks are and of course how great of a dancer you are. They analyze you from head to toe, and if you don’t do it perfectly the maddest one of all is going to be you, cause in a competition, there is no such thing as a second chance.

People start dancing because of different reasons, most of the times, like every little girl, your mom is the one who gets you into it, or maybe your friends, and sometimes you are drawn to

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dancing in order to express yourself and have something that moves you. In my case, my sister is the one who got me into it, she tried one class and I came along with her to the next

one to see what it was about. We both found certain interest in it and decided we would be part of the class. Since taking three classes was a lot, we left jazz and ballet and started a similar yet very distinct type of dance, Irish dance, where despite everything we already knew, there was always something appearing which taught us even more.

One thing I have learned through the years is that no matter how they get there every person seems to have similar if not the same characteristics. All of us have discipline, are coordinated and perfectionists, are competitive and have rhythm. As a dancer there is always one more step you need to climb and at least three things you want to improve even though the majority would think that those are impeccable. Unfortunately the consequence of it all is that we are used to not to being completely proud of our achievements.

Every year there is a competition, an exam and a festival; three dates, several dances, just one chance; to give the best of you and the opportunity to show what you can do. Through the year you practice and practice, learn new dances and improve the ones you already know in order to pass through this events on a high note. However, sometimes you get nervous, or worried, or maybe too excited and you don’t give your best at the competition, you get disappointed and continue to look for perfection within your dancing, and the truth is, there is no such thing as perfection.

As many others, I have fallen into the cycle of never having enough; our teachers, the judges, society gets into our heads and make us believe that one can be unequal and flawless. I got to the point where I stood back from that world, and understood that the main purpose of it all is

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to accept that I’m breakable, we all are. I have to understand that I can do things wrong, I can cry, disappoint myself and others, and making mistakes is a common thing.

Like everything in this world, dancing is full of corrections and changes,  it is stocked with mistakes that humans make, and I now know that it is okay for it to be that way. We can mess

things up all of the time, as long as we rise up again and keep trying, learn from everything we go though and keep on going.

The competition is the place where other people get to see a modest part of you, what should truly matter is what you see and know about yourself. If you have proven to yourself that you are capable of moving forward, that you don’t surrender  and always give the best of you on and off the stage, then whatever the rest thinks has no value. A competition doesn’t says it all, let the rest of the world think what they want. You do you.