THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO EXPRESS YOURSELF

Written by Helena Dimitrišin, IV. D

   Edited by: Sanja Bura, prof.

My name is Helena Dimitrišin and I’ve been dancing for 12 years. I’ve been a member of the dance group Flame for the past seven years.

What’s dance?

The above question may seem silly because we all know what dance is but for me it’s the following: moving, feeling, listening, creating and performing. The best definition of dance lies in these five words. Dance is a kind of art, it has various styles which may appear different to the viewer, but in their base they are all the same.

Dancers’ job is to entertain people, but for us it is not only important to impress; it is to express, and if we succeed in that, our job is done. The real beauty comes from different styles and the power of the movement. It’s also interesting how recent dances such as hip hop and MTV are fast and powerful, but ones like lyrical, jazz and ballet require much more energy of a person.

How do dancers prepare for show?

Just like with everything else in life, every good choreography relies on hours spent at the gym and hard trainings. The day of performance is very stressful, we, the dancers, usually can’t eat few hours before the show, not because of our looks, that is the least problem, but because of the costumes. There is a lot of pressure to change from one costume to another fast, dancers have to pay attention to proper stretching, to the right muscles, etc. Of course, this only refers to professional dancers who have more than three performances in one production. Furthermore, the adrenalin is so high that you can almost feel the blood passing through your veins, the heart beats so fast that you have a feeling it will jump out of your chest. But when you step on a stage, and the music starts, all your fears just disappear.

Which performances and prizes are the most memorable?

As for me, if you asked me to choose my favourite performance, it would be very hard to do it. Every year you’re improving yourself, and every year you are more and more satisfied with what you have done. Even if I can’t choose the best performance, I know I will always remember my first step on a stage and the choreography I made. Also, winning my first trophy was something unforgettable.

Throughout the years our dance group has had a lot of success, we’ve won many prizes so I won’t list them all; I’ll mention just those we won last year. In 2010 in a competition “Dance International” in Ligano we won silver medal in the category urban, and from a competition called ESDU World Dance Masters we returned home with three medals: one gold in the category hip hop and two silver medals in categories jazz and lyrical. One competition I also have to mention took place several years ago in Las Vegas, USA. It was world championship and we won gold medal. The following year at a world championship in Hollywood we did even better: we won three gold medals and a silver one.

For the end of this short article I’d like to say that there are many things standing between the good performance and the audience. If you think dancing is easy, you can come to my trainings and we’ll see if you’ll change your opinion.