To Be a Dancer Essay

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Who am I? Thats a question I sometimes still ask myself, and truthfully as each day goes by I discover something different. Generally when asked where I’m from it really throws me off balance and for a moment I’m really not sure on how to answer. I’m half Nigerian, half Jamaican; so I decided to join the two together and call myself a Jafrican. Typically it’s said that you claim the country your father is from and thats the end of the discussion; my father has been a strong believer of this statement. I guess you would think I would just accept this norm of belief my father uplifts. I mean afterall , all three of my names; first , middle and last are Nigerian to the core and I very much spent 6 good years in Nigeria for school from 7th to 12th grade. Don’t get me wrong I love my Nigerian culture but I would love to embrace the Jamaican side of me as well. I’ve done a few things in relation to the caribbeans , visited a few times, and of course interacted with that side of the family; even though we’re just becoming as close as we should’ve been years ago. This is only happening this way because my sisters and I spent so much time in Nigeria it felt like we didn’t really have the time to come as close to our cousins as we wanted to until now .

As for my general behavior, I love interacting with people of all ages, helping out and trying the most random activities or foods I’ve never experienced before. I’m pretty open to anything new, which may the reason behind my need to always keep moving. Honestly , I hate staying in one place for too long . My current passions are Biology; to fulfill my dream to be a dermatologist , modelling (even though I’ve only done it a few times, its something I hope to do as a hobby) and keeping my body moving. This includes dance, stepping, basketball and I suppose modelling could belong in this list as well. Now, I’m not what you’d call the best of dancers; impromptu isn’t really my strong point for dance . I can a little bit but i’m not a genius that can choreograph a whole dance routine in my mind and immediately implement it on site. (Well maybe a little bit , in the confines of a space where no one is looking). Although, I must say I’m really good at learning choreographed dance , which is something I love to do. I did things like this a few times in high school; for parties, events at school and just for the fun of it. Sometimes I’d pitch in to add to the routine or make a suggestion here or there. I miss doing stuff like this. Its been a while and the memory of doing this makes me nostalgic; sadly I just haven’t picked it back up again. Its been difficult to find a dance group that could be “family” or to even have the time to improve on my dance skills.

Fortunately, I kinda feel like I might of found something. OTR (Off The Richter, UMBC’s step team) just might be my go to, I know a few of them and they seem like a pretty cool set of people. Aside from needing to fulfill my culture credit, I really wanted to learn more about dance and hopefully have the chance to dance as well. So here I
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