Three Things Dance Taught Me: Kristen Piercey
"Three Things Dance Taught Me," is a blog series dedicated to exploring the profound impact of dance. In this series, we'll hear from a diverse range of voices, each sharing three invaluable lessons they've learned through their dance journey.
Three Things Dance Taught Me: Kristen Piercey
Kristen Piercey is a Newfoundland-based fibre artist who studied at Concordia University in Montreal to obtain a degree in Fibres and Material Practices. Within her work, she explores the self and how the body and mind adapt depending on the circumstances it is put in. This means she approaches a broad spectrum of ideas including things like fat bodies and chronic pain conditions. She works largely with crochet and embroidery but explores many varieties of fibre-based practices. Piercey has spent several years working for VANL and currently works at Memorial University.
1. Gratitude for my body.
The first lesson dance taught me - a lesson I have carried with me every day. Being disabled, having gratitude for my body and the way it moves is one of the most challenging aspects of living with chronic illnesses. While there are many things I can’t physically do, dance allowed me to find a deep love and appreciation for the things it can do. I was taught dance and movement in a way that was accessible, which in tandem taught me how to listen to my body and more importantly, respect its needs.
2. You don’t have to be the best at something to reap its benefits and enjoy what you’re doing.
I learned this lesson, I think, much earlier than most - I have dance to thank for that. Dance is available in such a wide range of skill levels, it’s embedded from the beginning to participate however feels most comfortable for you. Dances were always choreographed in ways that made you look and feel your best, even if that meant adjusting the difficulty. Because of that degree of accessibility, your focus naturally shifted to having fun and enjoying moving your body - a lesson you can carry through the entirety of your life.
3. Self love
It’s hard to narrow down the lessons dance taught me, since I learned so many valuable things - but self love was really one of the top lessons for me. At such a pivotal age being a pre-teen/teen at the time, it’s a formative time that’s so easily negatively influenced. Especially for me being new to chronic illness with many disabling symptoms, self love was a difficult concept to grasp given I had so much anger towards my body. Dance was, for some time, the only thing I had to look forward to - I had community, I was supported, I was loved - particularly during my modern classes. That group loved me enough that I was able to learn how to love myself. Whether they know it or not, the community and dance as a whole saved my life.
