I used to feel massive self-consciousness when I danced. This is how I overcame it.

Yes, I’ve been dancing all my life. My dad says I was dancing in my momma’s tummy before I even popped out. By 8 months old I was walking, and by 10, running all over the house! I never remember a time where I didn’t know what I wanted to do: dance. At the age of 3, I marched right up to the ballet barre in my pre-ballet class, ready to dedicate myself to learn how to dance.

I was a super shy, super serious, super sensitive little girl, and I couldn’t speak up if my life depended on it. I held impossibly high standards for myself, and beat myself up mercifully in my head for never reaching them. Can we say, perfectionist?

However, after months of daily work in the dance studio (we’re talking mucho hours a day), when I finally got onstage, it was my time to shine. Rather than stage fright, I felt at home. I felt powerful. I felt masterful. I felt free. I forgot my fears and self judgements, and instead, tapped into my most expressive, creative, badass self who tuned into the magnificent universal life force, and sprinkled it upon everyone watching me like glittering fairy dust.

And yet, the moment I walked offstage, I was back to my insecure self, deflating back down to about 2 feet tall, feeling more like a troll than a fairy, once again totally trapped in my inhibitions. Even on a dance floor.

Fast forward like 10 years later. I was entering my twenties, dancing for a professional ballet company during the day (I did it! I realized my dream!), while going out with a tight group of friends at night, in San Francisco’s booming house dance rave scene of the mid 90’s (cue velvet bellbottom leggings, platform tennies and glow sticks).

This was the first time I was dancing in public off a stage. With no set moves, no choreography to learn, perfect and repeat. It was up to me to make it up. To freestyle. On my own. In front of people. Lots of them. OMG. Total freeze moment. Like an ice cube in sub-zero temperatures.

I wanted so much to cut loose, to let myself go, to let my body move however the bomb beats were telling it to. But those old inhibitions still had me in their death grip.

Fast forward another 10 years. To find this footloose freedom I craved, it took me moving to the wilderness of British Columbia, where I was homesteading on 27 acres in the forest. My only audience members were mountain goats and grizzly bears (yes, for real - they were my closest neighbors!), and I spent years practicing my free style dancing to all different kinds of music, moving all different ways, and finally letting go of the constant internal monitoring (“am I doing this right?” “Do I look like a total dork?”).

And it was in Canada that I achieved a big milestone: performing onstage for the first time ever while improvising. In front of real humans (not bears). This was the ultimate test. Would I lose my nerve? Or was I truly free enough to perform without a plan?

I nailed it. It was exhilarating! And I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve overcome my self-conciousness. I’ve pounced on my fears like a 200 pound cougar (imagine seeing one of those outside your living room window). I’ve found total liberated flow to my own way of moving, whenever I get the urge, wherever I am, no matter who’s around (and now that I live back in San Francisco that’s a lot of people).

I’m so connected to my own energy, my own body, and my love of music that I can dance anywhere, anytime, just for the fun of it. And oh boy, it is ever fun!!

Life has become way more awesome and interesting and adventurous having found this freedom to be me, unapologetically.

I feel super stoked I have devoted my life to my true passion: dancing. And that I’m now dedicating it to helping others find unsurpassed joy through moving.

The great thing is, you don’t have to be a pro dancer. Or even want to be. You don’t need any dance experience at all. You don’t need to learn any specific style of dance (unless you want to).

I’ll take you from whoever you are right now, to greater freedom and confidence on the dance floor of life.

Ready?

Want to rock it with me?

To your liberation…

XO, Erin