SARA / dancer / 2002:
When I was a little girl I didn’t had a lot of friends and many kids made fun of me because I wasn’t pretty enough. I was so tall for my age, had long arms and legs and was so skinny/slim. When I started to dance ballet everything changed. Having long arms and legs was a good thing. Also, being tall was good because I could jump really high. Every time I was sad I could go to the studio and simply make it go away. Finally I had a place where I felt safe and belonged, and actually I was pretty good at it. Dance functioned like a protective mechanism for me, from the world. I remember I was so little I couldn’t explain in words what I felt when I danced, I just knew that that feeling of electricity going thrue my body was amazing and made me forget about everything else. I couldn’t stop that. Ever.