Dorm Mom
A few days before checking in, I got a WhatsApp message with the instructions for checking in and some house rules. It was from the “Dorm Mom”, Kiara.
I found out later Later that she took the job as a dorm mom in order to support herself to dance at the studio.
In addition to seeing her at the studio taking classes, I would see her at the dorm checking in new students coming, making sure everything was in good condition and everyone was back to the dorm before mid-night unless we gave her an early notice.
As a person already over 30, I felt like some rules were unnecessary at first until when I met some of my roommates for the first time.
The Space
Next to the living room, there was a shared kitchen for us to cook and prepare our meals as dining out everyday would be expensive and wasn’t practical. Ralphs became our usual visits for grocery shopping and it was just right across the street.
After putting my big suitcase in the storage room, I walked in to the dorm room. It was a little crowded with not much space to put things, but there were bunk beds and some closets with numbers assigned to us upon arrival. It was a room for 8 people, and there was another one with a 4-people capacity. Some beds seemed to be occupied already, and some were still empty.
As I walked further down to the end of the house, there was this amazing pool I was looking forward to when seeing it from the website. The founder of the dance studio and their families also lived in the same complex, just cross the shared pool.
It was a sunny day, which made my impression of the whole space a nice and warm place to stay, and it later turned out to be very true.
Roommates
There were 1 or 2 people sitting on their beds, giving me a smile when I entered the room. That was when I realized why the house rules were needed. They were really young, mostly underage.
Later on, there were more students/roommates joining as it got closer to the official summer break.
I was assigned to one of the top bunk, and the one staying at the bottom was a 19 years old girl from Mexico, Marcela.
She was in Canada for an year with a dance agency and went to the dance school. She had been dancing for 6 years, starting with hiphop, and now trying to figure out how to combine it with other styles. She was going to stay for 2 months, and would see how it goes to decide her next step.
(She returned to the studio a few times afterwards in the following years, and now she dances like a real professional)
I saw another girl stepping out from the dorm with joy on her face. It was her first day too, and I could feel the great vibe from her just by seeing her walking down the street.
We met at the class later as I recognized her face from the dorm as well as the beautiful flower tattoos on her arms. Paulina was a college student from Mexico, studying music as a vocalist in Boston. She had not been dancing before coming to the studio but coming here to dance was something she had always wanted to do.
Both of them signed up for the 2-month certificate program, which they can talk to the mentor from the studio about their goals and she will be suggesting which teachers and classes they should go to to accomplish the program.
Three of us without knowing one another before coming here later became close friends, living in the same dorm, going to the classes, exploring restaurants, places in LA and sharing lives together. The friendship found and built in this trip became the highlight and the greater experience than just dancing itself.
The Feelings
I’d always enjoyed traveling, exploring new culture and places, but this was more than that. There were some underlying purpose, excitements, expectations as well as fears in my mind…”What if I can’t keep up at all?”,”What if I don’t fit in?”, “What if I’m too old for this?”
I’d never been around with all the professional dancers, and it had been too long since the last time I stayed in a dorm. I surely felt like I was a bit lost, but I thought at least it was the happy-to-embrace kind of lost.
All the thoughts and feelings came up before I fell asleep the first night and many nights after, but seeing the passion and the love of dance from the people whom I shared the room with everyday reminded me of putting the focus purely purely on learning and dancing.
Angela Ting 