My Wonderful Dance Studio - by Peggy Wang

It was on my 28th Birthday. My job was a jazz dance teacher; I used to teach class in different dance studios in Taiwan. Sometimes I had 4 or 5 classes a day, so my daily life was running around from one studio to another. By the end of the day, I always felt so exhausted. One morning, I was taking a shower and thought about my daily routine. I started to think “will it be like this for the rest of my life?” Suddenly, a voice came out from my head. It said “I don’t want to run around anymore”. Therefore, I decided to open my own dance studio. That was on my 28th birthday. Now, my studio has become one of my very important possessions. It is a small place located on the east side of Taipei and the dancing area is a rectangular empty space. It has a wooden floor and a big clear mirror on the front and back side of the wall. Also, there is an old brown classical piano in the left corner of the room which my father bought for me when I was 6 years old. We usually use that for tap dance class. When you walk into the room, there is a small square window with a yellow plastic frame which is for the parents to watch their children while they are taking the dance class. Opposite this window, there are three more big aluminum windows that you can see the street view from there. Normally, we just leave the windows open, so in the summer, it won’t feel too stuffy. This is my favorite part. Every afternoon, when the weather is warm and cloudless, and the sunlight comes straight through the windows. Then, you can see the shadow on the floor, and when everyone is dancing in the classroom, it seems like a hundred people are doing the same steps together, just like having a great party in this room. I have really enjoyed the time while I am teaching there. I’ve had so much fun in this small warm space – my wonderful dance studio.