By Susan Strasburger

At 18, I had decided "it's too late now to be a dancer," since I had declined Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and decided to go to Yale University instead. (You can't say no to Yale, can you?!)

Although I found a way to dance and perform there, when I went to New York City at 21, I said once again "it's too late now to be a dancer." I took classes, but always left feeling depressed.

My father, seeing my malaise, gave me an ultimatum: "Go to graduate school. I'll pay. I don't care what it's in, but another degree will open more doors for you." I went to graduate school in dance. After all, MA degrees allow you to teach in community college. That was my rationale: I'm too old to perform, but I can teach.

And teach I did, until Proposition 13 cut my job, which started a very circuitous route for 30 years, including performances on and off in community theater, but always with the internal refrain: "This isn't it; you blew your chances back at 18."

The stories of those 30 years I will spare you, for now. This is just our first visit together, and I want to get to the punchline.

At the ripe age of 55, I was invited to perform with WingIt! Performance Ensemble, an improvisational, community-oriented, playful and body-wise collection of folks who have come to realize that all those things we were So Sure About, were stories... to be told, performed, ex-formed (as we call it, to help antidote the toll that our world's non-stop in-formation takes on our body/spirits).

It's never too late to be a dancer. It's all in the story we hold about what "being a dancer" means. Gratefully, I have many stories to share, poignant and silly, about meaning and movement, consciousness and dance. I look forward to our virtual dances here together!

Susan Strasburger, PhD, loves to dance with the complexity of life as a counselor and coach (Integrative Consulting: Living with Presence), member of the Interplay community and WingIt! Performance Ensemble, and by living Nonviolent Communication principles (collaborative trainer with Bay NVC).