I am a mother of a boy and a girl, eighteen months apart to the day. I live with my fabulous littles and my terrific husband, who puts up with me, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Currently my kids are 2.5 and 4. They are deliciously gorgeous, healthy, intelligent, curious and headstrong little people who demand every cell of my being for the 10 or so hours they are awake, and my joy, worry and listening cells when they are asleep. Every day I am some combination of clothing and hair stylist, personal chef, server, maid, valet, chauffeur, therapist, personal shopper, activities director, comedienne, disciplinarian, nurse, teacher and safety guard. I do these things sometimes joyfully, sometimes only because I am Mommy.
Once upon a time I was a dancer. My days were filled with classes, i.e. working out, rehearsing and teaching modern, jazz and ballet at a swanky private school so that I wouldn't have to eat cat food. My life was about me, my then boyfriend, now husband, and dance - as a technique, as a medium and as a lifestyle. I worked with choreographers who were smart and encouraging, and got to see Europe. Dance was what I did, and it was who I was. I would dance until I was carted off the studio or stage floor with a tag on my toe.
But I always knew I wanted to have children. Just as I knew I'd have regrets if didn't try to dance professionally, I knew the same about having children. So after natural luck failed, scientific luck graced us with a beautiful son. Then natural luck came back, and we were blessed with a daughter born a year and a half later.
Two under two made a professional dance career look like cupcakes from a mix.
Two under two made a professional dance career look like cupcakes from a mix.
So now I am Mommy. Although I love my kids more than I love oxygen, I miss who I was for the thirty-ahem years before I had children. I haven't been performing, let alone taking class regularly. I still teach dance part-time, but that's not about me, it's about raising the next generation of dancers. It's up to me to carve out a creative space for myself, a place where I can share my mommy mayhem, where I can entertain, uplift and maybe even enlighten - this time with words, instead of movement. It's a new stage for this Mama.
Welcome!
-Keesha
