The advice above was texted to me by a friend after I wrote to ask her if it was normal not to be able to breathe before your first dance performance.  This weekend was my first public flamenco show.  Since the last time I did anything in public I was five years old and still had an unbelievably bad sense of timing, I was understandably nervous before the show. 

 My ENTIRE family and a few very close friends (the only ones I would ever let see me humiliate myself in public) were there to support me and I really felt the love.   I truly learned the meaning of the term “the show must go on” when my skirt became momentarily stuck to my shoe.  Fearing the worst, visions of me finishing the dance skirtless, I finally managed to unhook myself and finish in style with my pride intact.  While I will probably never be a professional flamenco dancer (as in, there is probably not a chance in hell), it is the one thing I did last year that helped to give me my confidence back after a rough patch of personal floundering and self-doubt.  Thanks to everyone that came and everyone who wasn’t there but was thinking of me.  I appreciate and love you all more than you’ll ever know.