I began my first dance class at Dance Arts studio when I was only two years old and have been dancing there ever since. In the sixth grade, my parents encouraged me to join the school band so I chose to play the flute. A few years later, my sophomore year in high school, I decided to join the marching band as a flute player, and then switched to mellophone my junior year. I shortly discovered that the training I received at Dance Arts greatly influenced the ease of learning how to march. Things like “feet on the beat” and being able to move in time with the music felt natural to me. I didn’t have to be taught how to do some dance moves that were incorporated into our band show because I had known them for years; and even learning our drill was not difficult to me from years of having to memorize dance combinations. Since I have many years of experience dancing in the annual spring dance recitals on stage in front of hundreds of people, I am very comfortable performing with an audience at marching competitions as well.
My band skills have also transferred over to my ballet skills in many ways. In band is where I really learned how to count music and rhythms. That became especially helpful in my dancing because I finally understood why we were counting our movements and I could listen to a song and be able to count the beats myself. There were definitely a few bad habits I picked up in band that I brought into the studio that I had to overcome. A few weeks after I got my very first pair of pointe shoes, Ms. Martha pointed out to me that my shoulders were uneven, and that I was using them to get on the box of my pointe shoes, instead of doing it the proper way by using the strength in my legs. We finally realized it was due to my posture because of my many years of flute playing. It is something that to this day I have to be aware of and fix and control, and something we smile about now.
However, participating in these two very time-consuming activities at the same time caused me to learn how to make sacrifices, and I learned decision-making skills. For example, on Mondays marching band practices are right after school until 4:30. I had to make the choice to leave 30 minutes early to be able to have time to eat dinner, change my clothes and make it to dance at 5:00 on time. And because of that, I had to spend time outside of a normal practice learning what I missed. That meant either showing up early to a practice, or going out on the practice field when everyone else had a water break to work out some extra practice. And, thankfully, my amazing friends in my mellophone section helped me to do that and also took extra time to teach me what I missed.
I love being able to do both of these amazing performing arts. They have given me wonderful life-long friendships and memories, and I am forever grateful for how they have changed and influenced my life, and it is definitely worth all the hard work that I put into it and I wouldn’t change it for the world!
-by Margaret Dougherty
About the Author: Margaret Dougherty is a student and marching band member at Greenwood High. She has studied ballet at the Dance Arts School since age 5.