Wangyue Zhou, Grade 11
UWCSEA Dover Campus

When asked about a place on campus that is special to me, the dance room comes to my mind. Located on the second floor of the sports center, the dance room allows twenty people at most at a time. Girls usually practice for important celebrations here. The large mirror at the front allows better coaching by reflecting movements. I opted for traditional Chinese dance for the CAS activity. We spent two hours every week in the dance room. During these sessions, we kept learning new choreography and reviewing previous movements. The learning pace is fast. At first, I was not eagerly concerned about the choreography. I had suffered from practicing difficult movements. The length of the choreography is also hard to handle. I could hardly remember any movements learned from previous sessions every time I went to the dance room. I wanted to quit several times during these four months; even at the last moment, I considered not performing with others on stage. However, one day I looked at the dance shoes and thought of shining on the large school stage, I decided to continue. I picked up the dance shoes and started going to the dance room much more frequently. “I’m not talented”, I thought, which means I had to practice more than others to compensate for the untalented nature. Therefore, I started practicing every day after dinner from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The dance shoes had broken, and my limbs cramped often. I enjoy practicing alone because it’s a deep conversation with my soul. After practicing more than 20 hours a week, the celebration for the lunar Chinese new year was eventually put on the agenda. The final performance was astonishing. I heard the audience shouting out my name for the splendid performance. That moment is one of the highlights of my life. It made every drop of blood, sweat, and tear worth the effort. My effort put into practice makes this activity so engaging that it helped develop my character. I’m more persevering than before. Thanks to dancing I can glitter on the stage and enjoy flowers and applause. The dance room is therefore the most special place to me on campus for the huge amount of time I had spent there.

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