Dance became the center of my world at the tender age of three, although I suspect I was boogie-ing around in the living room even when I was in diapers. I learned ballet, tap, and jazz and dreamed of being a dance teacher someday. At age ten, my family and I moved, and that meant I had to leave dance school. It seemed like my dream was shattered, but my dancing days weren't over! In fact, after years off, I got to dance again as part of a high school competition pom team. And eventually, my childhood dream did came true when I began coaching the Spring Valley High School Vallettes. Now you can find me in the commons each afternoon, yelling out counts, demonstrating pirouette technique, and giving my dancers corrections to make. Even though it's hard work and can be quite tiring some days, remembering the years I didn't have dance in my life make me appreciate every practice, even the grueling four-hour summer and sweltering heat ones. It's a lesson we've all heard before: appreciate what you have while you have it. So I do, and every day for (hopefully) a long time, I'll be saying "five, six, seven, eight..."