I have officially been living in America for over a month now!
What an adventure it has been so far! Each day has opened my eyes to truly seeing just how omniscient the Lord is, showing Himself to be ever close, constantly faithful and the ultimate Jehovah Jireh.
I can't say it's been the easiest adjustment, this is the third country I've had the opportunity to live in which means I have more than one 'home' to compare it to. Everything is so different in the USA, but everytime I face something that challenges me, I am filled with gratitude for everything I've been through and learnt in the last several years of living and dancing away from home.
I am so thankful to be dancing so much again. After the long desert season that covid brought, I will never take studio time for granted again! I would have to say that it's hard being back in 'schooled' training after dancing professionally for the last 4 years. The company style tendencies I grew accustomed to are hard to lose.... uniform, dress code, addressing teachers correctly... but nothing I can't learn to adjust to!
I'm learning to love the area I'm living in, going for many walks in my spare time to catch the sunset and still carrying on with all my art projects. I've loved the process of finding a new Church to call home and am pretty convinced that I've found my place. It's been difficult to find good times for long chats with the family back home, but after being away from home for so many years, I've learnt the joy of a simple voice note and heart emoji when time zones don't line up!
I've also been working very diligently on my training outside of the ballet studio. I am SO thankful for the influence that Pilates training and teaching has had on my understanding of the body, strength and control and also how much my activity in various sports showed me the necessity of good cross-training. I am always amazed to learn how many dancers simply don't know how to care for and steward their bodies through proper training, nutrition and supplementing it through proper rehab and energising rest. But that has fuelled my desire to continue working on what that means for my own body and my own journey so I can share that with others. Being in an environment so immersed in faith, I have found the joy in bringing my life of worship into everything I do so openly. Everything we do is worship, and that's a hard heart posture to bring into a secular environment. But being in a faith-fuelled place has ignited my desire to work towards excellence so that my performance will grow out of a passionate and disciplined stewardship.
Last weekend, I performed with the other trainee 2 dancers at a community performance at Belhaven University. We performed 'King of Glory' from our Worship Set repertoire and even though it was a different performing experience to what I've been used to, it was so lovely to be back on stage, dancing and worshipping the Lord!
The next couple of weeks will be filled with lots of learning and cleaning of Christmas pieces ahead of December, as well as just personally getting to know more people and getting involved at my new Church.
I'll be in touch soon!
~ X ~
Comments