On Cleanliness and Other Things

Like many of my peers, I did not grow up in dance studios learning movement and doing dance steps my whole life. In fact, sports played a big part in my early life. I played baseball, soccer, football, and tennis at a very competitive level. I was a varsity football player, earning awards in my league; and an Olympic development soccer player, ranked as one of the best players in the Western Hemisphere in my teens. Many of my childhood teammates have gone on to become some of the best soccer players in the world. Dance was just something I liked to mimic from watching Soul Train, American Bandstand and being inspired by artists like, MC Hammer, Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, New Edition, James Brown, Gene Kelly and more. I would mimic these people because I loved music and dance made me feel good. More important at the time, practicing in my garage at home helped my coordination in the field. It wasn't until my senior year of high school that I realized how much I really loved to perform. Every year at my high school, there was an annual dance concert. Two of my sports buddies decided to audition for the show, hoping to impress any cute girls who might be at the show. I decided to join them, and we started to put together our routine. We would practice in the school quad at night and watch the shadows cast by the reflected light to make sure we were in sync. We had no idea about dance studios, mirrors, or traditional choreography, but we knew what we liked. We all were big fans of MC Hammer and a group called Guy, so we started with that. We worked hard practicing our routine, and were proud of our "choreography"- which consisted of repeating a step at least four times until we changed to another one. When the audition day came, we threw down our routine and were an instant hit! When show day came, we were surprised to find out that this was the first time that the dance concert had ever sold out. The entire football team, soccer team, and basketball te