Dreams fulfilled through dance.

The Twilight Moms rented out two theaters and were offering the people who were there early two hours worth of pre-movie entertainment and costume contests and prizes etc.
We got to dance in front of the big screens, and boy can I tell you those things are intimidating!
Especially when each theater seats 500 people.
No pressure, right?
We shortened our full length show to just 4 numbers for roughly 10 minutes of dance time.

So here we are as members of the Volturi. a.k.a Vampire Royalty.

I really got into this dance. It was a lot of fun.

And The Cullen Clan dancing a Cha Cha whilst playing Baseball...

Martin and I like to play with each other and the audience when we are EmCee'ing. It's fun.
In Twilight world- you have Team Edward and Team Jacob.
Well, needless to say we now have... Team Martin.
He created this out on the Plaza and some people in the theater were calling out Team Martin after he and I danced the waltz together.
I shyly grabbed the microphone and asked in a timid voice, "What about a Team Mandy?"
...
The crowd went wild! AHH!!! It was amazing. Apparently I have more Team Mandy fans than Edward or Jacob! HAHA!
The crowd was truly amazing and I gave them everything in my performances.
So much so, that I seriously aggrivated a pre-existing neck injury (from dance) and the next day I couldn't lift my chin from my chest.

I only have pictures form inside the theater because of a random Twilight Mom in the audience. I wish we could have had video.

It was the performance of my lifetime.

I'm gonna get a bit mushy and a bit fangirl here. You have been warned.

The waltz I choreographed is some of my best work. It was difficult to put together, because it had to tell a heart breaking story. One that everyone who has read the books cried over.

My goal was to re-create it so that the audience would connect with it and feel something real.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, please refer to Book Two: New Moon.

So keeping that in mind I'm going to touch on another story.

I started dancing again to help me find my identity as the confusion of new motherhood assaulted me. Teaching helped with that identity crisis. But counting 1,2,3- 1,2,3 to an engaged couple for an hour doesn't really allow me to spread my wings and fly across the dance floor.

Teaching and dancing are two totally separate things.
The past several months, I haven't felt fulfilled because I wasn't actually dancing. I felt like I was becoming lost again. Random teachers and students would ask why I wasn't doing little show numbers for events and at parties like some of the other teachers and students. It was because I wasn't asked and had no one to dance with. So I hung out in the background hoping that one day it would be me performing. I live to perform! To get lost in the dance, become someone else and bring the audience along with me for the ride. It's an amazing feeling.

I got that chance last Tuesday night.

Because of the set up, costume changes and dances we felt were the most important to showcase in the small time allotted to us inside the theaters, I got to do the group waltz as a solo!

I put on the character and put every ounce of emotion I could into the dance. I layed my soul bare on that theater floor and let the music flow through me. When Martin lifted me at the crescendo of the music and began to spin, it was heaven. I let myself go and became the character completely. And I let my heart break when Martin left me. I cried. I cried for Bella's heartache and I cried for my chance to show how much I love dance. It was an experience I will never forget.

Now, I've never woken up screaming from a nightmare where my vampire boyfriend left me in the woods after declaring that he didn't want me anymore... but from the applause coming out of both theaters, I think I may have nailed it. ;) (Hence the Team Mandy!)

I ran backstage to change for my next number and proclaimed through tears to my team:

"I love to dance."

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been able to put this dance team together and to get the chance to do what I absolutely love to do!