#ex dancer

[microwavebeeping]

I need a ballet class with just disabled and chronically ill dancers so I can get back into dance without being yelled at for my limited range of movement

[thelastwhimzy]

Video description: Video of an Afro-Indigenous nonbinary femme during various periods of his life. Aster has light brown skin, dark brown curly hair, and a fluctuating body size. The song is set to "wildflower" by Billie Eilish.

Billie sings, "I should put it all behind me, shouldn't I? / But I see her in the back of my mind / All the time / Like a fever, like I'm burning alive / Like a sign / Did I cross the line?"

There are several clips in this video:

1) A photo of Aster leaning on his rollator in a doctor's office exam room.

2) A video of Aster doing a roundoff back-handspring a few years ago

3) A video of Aster doing an aerial landing onto a trampoline

4) In this video, Aster does a back-walkover

5) Aster does a calypso leap

6) Photo of Aster doing a standing pike stretch with straight knees - part of the Beighton score

7) Photo of Aster showing that his thumb can touch his wrist

8) Photo of Aster with his elbow outstretched to show hyperextension

9) Photo of Aster doing the splits with his head tilted back

10) 3 photos of Aster in the hospital more recently

End description.]

This month is third anniversary of when I finally realized I couldn't coach/do gymnastics anymore due to my health. Gymnastics and dance were my entire life for so long and the grieving process has been intense. I miss it so, so much. Hope to one day become involved again in some sort of capacity, but I also know that that probably isn't realistic.

[v333rbatim]

there is something so magical about dance! the storytelling, the technique, the style, the emotion! if there is one thing in my childhood i could return to in the blink of an eye it would be dance, it possesses the deepest crevasses of my soul!

[palette19]

I think the hardest realization of being a former dancer in any form of dance is finally realizing that you won’t be able to dance in a studio again or that you won’t be able to dance again. It may be because of moving away, having to leave dance behind to pursue a more “stable” career, to pursue a career that is deemed more worthy to your parents, to study for said careers or an injury that now prevents you from dancing. It’s heartbreaking and this just struck me this morning. I know I fell out of love with dance due to a loss, but trying to pick it up again only to find out that it’s not possible to do it in my present or future, is devastating. I believe it is truly a dancers death. The first of many or perhaps the last.

[panicgixiemeamdirl]

The worst thing about being an ex-dancer is knowing that you mentally and emotionally are better off without it but then you hear a song and go into full choreographer mode and feel the forever yearning to go back

[galaxy-spiral]

i thought chasing after him was pathetic, but i just attempted a variation i learned two years ago after losing all my muscle to my ed and boy, that gave a whole new meaning to the word pathetic.

[starxzyz]

dancing in college is not the sameeee like i can’t believe all that hard work just to take a one unit dance class for a semester

[trunerdcore]

Oh, to be an ex-dancer driving to their hometown to teach their little sister how to tap while listening to Bottom Of The Pyramid by Nia Sioux