After auditioning for three countries: Brazil, Spain, and Trinidad in accordance with my interest in the country’s style of dance, I was accepted into Brazil. During the first rehearsal, we learned briefly about the country’s style of dance and the energetic, lively nature that we were expected to project to the audience onstage. As our dance was made up of both guys and girls, we were separated into the gender-specific substyles of Brazilian dance, named ‘Lambada’ for the girls, and ‘Frevo for the guys’.

With the guy’s movements being quite strong and sharp, the girls movements were quite the opposite; with fluid hip and arm movements while the legs moved at a constant pace. I found this slightly challenging as we had to combine a lot of hip movements and arm movements within the same count, all while trying to ensure that our movements were fluid and elegant. What I found was that this style of dance was quite similar to tap dance as we had to move our legs and arms in constant motion.

During the following practices, we had to practice the dance wearing heels, which proved quite a challenge as I had never danced in heels before. However, seeing as many of the other people in the dance had never danced in heels before, I felt slightly more at ease with the idea. This experience allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and try something new that I had little prior little knowledge of. Even though when dancing I am usually used to having at least some prior experience, this style of dance was completely new and unexplored – which made me even more determined to make each step look effortless.