The Last Dance

I found this post on another blog and when I read it it gave me chills because I could so strongly identify with each word. So many times in the last nine years I have thought about my choice to stop dancing. I know my experiences in life would've been very, very different had I continued down that path.

"Some years ago I decided to stop dancing. Rather than allow my health to downgrade my dancing, I would stop before humiliating myself in front of an audience. I've not worn point shoes since that day. Not even in private. I took my last pair of pointe shoes for one last spin and then cast one of them in the garbage bin and left the studio. It was gutwrenching. The other of the two slippers I have kept, tucked away in my closet. Today, I tool my old friend out of the closet and we sat a while, thinking of old times, the times when I could fly. The ribbon was loosened and the shoe placed on my foot. It still fits, but without a mate, I cannot take it for a ride. So with a sigh, the ribbon is tucked around the heel again and the shoe, after one more portrait, was put out of sight again." (By aletta @ "Pandora's Costume Box")