“My Experience of Elevate Arts” by a young local Acton dancer

Seth is a young Acton dancer at Elevate Arts. We invited him to write a guest blog on his experience within dance and how it has helped him in other areas of his life and he jumped at the opportunity. We won’t say too much to introduce Seth and his story as he has done an amazing job of that himself and we are sure it will help inspire some other young people out there! Have a read of his blog post below:

Elevate arts is an amazing, supporting dance family that offers many different dance styles, including Afro, the many street dance styles and contemporary. Everyone in Elevate Arts are supportive, passionate and well-behaved. We all know that people are better than us and we are willing to improve by working hard. In my personal experience, I can suffer with very bad anxiety and get stressed easily, but Lucy – our main street dance teacher – has helped me not to feel as stressed and has helped me learn how to cope by always by being reassuring, supportive, encouraging and helpful.  Along with that and all of the friends I’ve made and how kind, caring and helpful they are, it has all helped to boost my confidence drastically and now that my confidence has gotten better, my dance skills are getting better. Here is my journey as a young Acton dancer with Elevate Arts…

I joined Elevate Arts when I was in the infants (end of year 2) and now I’m in year 6, so just over 3 years. Then in year 3 I joined my school’s dance crew and I am still in it to this day. I have made friends along the way and I’m going to be sad when I leave but I know I will have better opportunities ahead of me as well. Before I started dancing, I would say I was more fidgety and jumpier, very shy and anxious. Whereas now, I feel more confident and not as jumpy. I have been to 2 competitions with the school crew and I have performed at 2 markets with Elevate Arts and recently my 1^st dance competition with my Elevate Arts crew too. This has helped me manage my anxiety by helping me to get out there and not just stay in the shadows. I have been in the Elevate Arts crew for two terms now. (This is my second). Lucy has encouraged us to be the best that we can be in every way – mentally, physically and emotionally. She supports us and we all support each other.

During lockdown I really struggled with not seeing people in real life. Lucy kept dance classes going on Zoom which was amazing, and even added in social jam sessions so we could hang out virtually…but as time went on, I even found that hard and withdrew from it all. I was even ready to quit dance altogether. Thankfully my mum and Lucy worked really hard together to help me through my hard time, and not only did I stay at dance but I auditioned for the crew – and MADE IT! Some weeks I even get chosen to be in the demo group and I feel on top of the world when that happens! It’s amazing to look back and see how far I’ve come – and exciting to see how far I have left to go.

Every day I work on a positive mindset so I don’t start thinking negatively again, I work on practicing my dance skills and improving my muscle memory with the foundations, and I work on my fitness. I’m getting there with all of my goals. My fitness goal is tricky because I broke my foot in the summer BUT my positive mindset meant I kept going to class with my boot on – I could take notes, listen, watch, be sociable and do everything except dance really! I’ll get there with my fitness, I know I will!

Written by Seth (year 6) – Acton dancer

Has this helped inspire you? Are you impressed by Seth’s story? Find out more about our Acton street dance classes here: Classes – Elevate Arts UK