throwback.

It's never too late for a Throwback Thursday memory.

The hashtag #throwbackthursday (or #tbt) has emerged as a huge trend on social media, especially through the photo-sharing network, Instagram.

As a journalist, my natural tendency is to observe from both a distance and in the thick of it all. Like most trends, I thought Throwback Thursday would phase itself out over a few weeks. However, I think time is proving that it will be here to stay for awhile.

Slowly but surely, I have started to post my own photosr aging from a couple months to a couple years prior. As like-minded friends and I have shared funny, old and classic photos of each other, Throwback Thursday has become something I look forward to.

A few weeks ago, I had a major reality check/throwback. When I first moved to Toronto, I was still trying to get my feet on the ground and figure out where I wanted to work, dance, study, eat, et cetera. In the dance department, I tried out more studios and classes than I could shake a stick at.

I remember being in an open jazz class in 2009, watching an absolutely stunning dancer with beautiful technical training perform a combination across the floor. I had this moment (and I kick myself now for thinking this) where I said to myself, "Portia, you'll just never be that good. Let this dream go."

Over the next few years, I dabbled in the dance community, but put all my energy into school. When the dance bug bit me during my fourth year of university, I started taking more classes, choreographing and performing. Slowly, I found my self confidence and technique rising even more than I thought possible.

Now that I'm teaching, dancing and choreographing professionally, I try to take a moment and see how far I've come.

However, sometimes you can't choose those moments, I think they find their way to you. Mine happened in March while I was on stage performing in a sold out show. As I came up to my partner, she put her arm around me, looked me in the eye, and we continued along with the choreography. Front and centre in the piece, I realized my partner was that girl I had compared myself to in the studio only a few years before.

Of course I knew it was the same dancer long before this, but that was my "aha" moment, realizing how much has changed on my end.

I'm an avid believer in the throwback - they show us just how far we've come, and I can't imagine how much further we can go.

I can't wait to post a photo from that performance in a future Throwback Thursday.

Just a thought.

thrill.

Yesterday was a sad day, losing two great entertainers Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. The later has really affected me and most of the dance world, as this man, despite the controversy and issues surrounding him was a ground breaker in movement. Now, of course Thriller is the best music video of all time (as determined by multiple media sources) and the dancing will never be forgotten - I have to make a case for the Smooth Criminal video as well.
Perhaps I have a slight bias as I have danced to many of MJ's songs, but I remember tap dancing to Smooth Criminal and having the audience just go wild. In the video, Jackson performs some of the most interesting moves, including the shoulder movement with the moonwalk/glide, every movement looking so precise and engaging the watching completely. But that tilt of the body where he and the dancers are 45 degrees to the ground? Ridiculous. An idol of the dance world is gone, and influenced us all in so many ways by breaking the boundaries of what was the norm. He's now dancing on the clouds, may he always be remembered. RIP.