Shannon | Beach Haven
“I was over at a Melbourne tap festival, and there were all these open nights for just jamming and tapping with each other, with all the tutors that were there teaching their ways, and I bought my tap shoes along.
I was with my friend Kate, and I didn’t get up because I was too scared that I was just going to mess up in front of everybody. So, my friend went up and she danced, and it was an amazing night, and I just sat there feeling just sad for myself, because I regretted not going up there. It was an amazing night, and after we left, I kind of wish I went up, but I didn’t.
If I could turn back time, I would tell myself to stop worrying about everything, get up on stage, stop thinking about it, everyone’s there to have fun, no-one’s really going to judge you.
I’m also a tap dance teacher, and all my connections with my students are really important, and just talking to them and seeing how much I make their day with dancing and everything, is just really nice, and it’s quite important.
I started tapping when I was about four. It plays a really large role in my life, I used to do it three or four times a week, so it would be four classes, or three classes, and made so many different friends, and they would just be the friends that I had outside of school. So, I had connections elsewhere, and I’m still friends with them, and my old dance teacher gave me quite a few good life lessons along the way, and lots of little fun things to do like tapping up the aisles of the supermarket, and it was really fun. So, there was another one, whenever we started learning a new exercise, we were taught to crawl, then walk, then run. So most of us have the expectation that once we got taught it, we could just do it straight away, and we were frustrated, and I think that was visible in a lot of our faces. So, she was like, it’s okay to not be able to do it the first time. It’s just a long process you’re going to learn over time, and I carry that through the rest of my work, as well, and the rest of my life.
I’d say family is really important to me, and just connection. Yesterday was my granddad’s birthday, so we had a whole bunch of family who I hadn’t seen in about three or four years over, and I think that’s really important to stay in touch.
Certain regrets I guess, it would be alright to hold on to, as they might be a learning point for you, but other times, if it’s a small petty regret, like ‘oh damn I didn’t go buy this’, you shouldn’t hold onto those, because those will just weigh you down and make you feel worse.”
