Editor’s Note: The following essay is the winning submission selected for the 2025 Showstopper Day Essay Contest Crystal Essay Award. The Crystal Essay Award highlights the essay submission that best captures the spirit of Showstopper Day. Kori Paugh used the prompt “How has dance impacted your relationship with your community?” to look outward, describing and thanking those who have supported and inspired her. Her essay is an obvious encouragement for her reader to do the same.
I am a dancer because of passion. I have a passion for dancing that impacts and shapes my world. I adore dancing, I adore feeling the warmth of the stage lights burst across my skin. I have a passion for dance, I have a passion for putting on my costume and feeling the way the air glides across my arms as I project my most intense feelings through movement. I have a passion for creation, creation of not just movement but of emotion and sentiment. Emotion is power. Enough emotion and passion for something can light fires, it can move mountains, it can change lives. I know because it has changed mine. Dance has changed my life. Dance creates a drive like nothing else I have ever experienced, dancing pushes me to always learn more and know what I need to improve on and how.
I am a dancer because I have passion.
I am a dancer because of family. Family is not only the people you are related to by blood but the people you are related to by love. I love my dance family, I have the girls I grew up with and the ones we picked up throughout the years and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My teammates are more than just my friends, they are my sisters. Dance creates deep relationships because we connect by expressing emotion not only with each other but through each other. Family is what keeps us going, they are the people that push us and encourage us through the worst things in life. Whenever I come off stage, my sisters are always there to tell me how good I did and how no one could have noticed my mistakes. I have not only sisters but I have the best sisters anyone could ever ask for. Dani, Auriel, Dwa, Ally, Addie, Chloe, Alyvia, Elissa, Charlotte, Riley, Grace, Addison, McKinley, Isabella, Olivia, Violet, Tilly, Aaliyah, Mollie, Cordora, Abby, Catherine, Lillie, Amelia, Caroline, Alani, Josie, Ainsley, Valerie, Raven, Vera, Emma, Payten, Macie, Ansley, Brooklyn, Leola, Lydia, you all are my sisters and my family and I love you all so much.
I am a dancer because I have family.
I am a dancer because of inspiration. Inspiration can be given and received, I become who I am through both. I am inspired by so many people everyday but dancers never cease to amaze me. I believe I inspire some of the younger girls to keep persevering even when things get difficult. Yet sometimes I am inspired by them, the talent that all of my teammates have is breathtaking. Watching my friends on stage inspires me to keep going because I might be inspiring someone else as they’re watching me. The cheers from the girls in the crowds, the way they scream your name and come meet you backstage when your dance is over is inspirational in itself. I am inspired by the other dancers around me, watching the amazing dancers perform on stage or at conventions and intensives inspire me to get to that level. Even though all of these people inspire me I am also inspired by myself. I am inspired by the growth from how I used to be to the person and the dancer that I am now. If I was able to grow this much so recently I would be able to do it again. My progress and my hard work inspires me the same way that others inspire me.
I am a dancer because I have inspiration.
I am a dancer because of hope. Hope shapes our world and makes us reach for a better future for ourselves. Hope prepares us to dream, prepares us to live; because what is living without a dream? Well, living without dreaming isn’t living; the world runs off of dreams. When people dream breathtaking things will occur. Walt Disney had a dream, he was turned down by a Kansas City newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. This rejection didn’t stop Disney; he kept trying, he created an animation studio and failed again; the studio went bankrupt. So Disney set his sights on something better, and he had hope that his time would come, and it did. He founded the Disney Brothers’ Studio in Hollywood and he eventually became the person we know today. Disney was rejected but he had a dream and let nothing get in the way of his dream. He kept hope and persevered when he was rejected and times got tough. I have dreams too, I want to be the best dancer I possibly can, not only that but even in my career and through my life I have a desire to continue dancing. Do you have a dream?
I am a dancer because I have hope.
I am a dancer because I love to dance. It seems conspicuous but it is more meaningful than just a love for dancing. It is the love for movement, the love for learning through motion, the love of expression. I love dancing, I love the way that I am able to improve everyday and reach milestones I wasn’t able to reach before. I love the sense of accomplishment as I learn a new skill or perform something better than I had before. I love performing, I love being on stage and witnessing my emotion being cast upon each and every person in the crowd. I love knowing where I used to be and how far I’ve come. I love knowing how much I still have left to improve and where I am going to get. I love thinking back on little me and being able to tell her everything I’ve done and every opportunity I’ve received. She would be proud and truly amazed. I am a dancer because I love to dance.
I am a dancer because I have passion, family, inspiration, and hope; but most importantly, I love to dance.
Do you love to dance?
