The highlight for this month is a very special and accomplished dancer, Nazar Norov. Together, Nazar and Irina have been 3 times undefeated National and World Professional Rhythm Champions. As a dancer, it was very interesting and humbling to know more about Nazar’s dance journey. He is living proof that success if a long journey of discipline, hard-work, and dedication. In advance, I want to thank Nazar Norov for his time and sharing a little bit of his story with me.
Born and brought up in Russia, Nazar was just 5 when he first stepped into the world of dancing and began his journey as a dancer. It was Nazar’s parents who introduced him into the world dancing and despite his apprehensions about it, kept him pushing to continue with it. In fact, in the beginning, Nazar even hated the idea of dancing, but tried giving it a year on his parent’s call. So, at a younger age while Nazar chose to stick to dancing, he also tried his game at soccer and karate.
Nazar believes that dancing, much like life is always filled with struggles. Most of the times, these struggles are not the major struggles, but the everyday struggles that are hard to cope with. During his dancing journey, Nazar’s biggest struggle was to time and again form sync with the changing dancing partners. Having a steady dancing partner is always a boon, but in Nazar’s case, he had to change partners quite frequently as most of the girls continued to outgrow him. Apart from the straining effect of changing partners, Nazar even suffered from an injury that made him take a 5 month break from dancing.
Nazar believes that aspiring dancers should invest their time and energy in becoming proficient in the basics of their dancing style, because this is what will help them in the long run. In his view, the more time you devote in perfecting your basics, the more rewarding it will be in the future regardless of your dancing style. In his opinion, getting a fine hold of the basics of your dancing style is also something that will lead to lesser injuries while practicing any dance form. Injury is of the biggest fear for any dancer, and hence Nazar’s advice to aspiring dancers about strengthening their basics holds a lot of value.
In all these years in his journey as a dancer, Nazar has come to believe that every dancer must focus on his/her own journey rather than blindly following someone else that they admire. He doesn’t believe in seeking quick return of investment for all his efforts, but rather believes in enjoying the journey, each day as it comes.
One must understand the fact that comparing your dancing journey to others will not lead you anywhere. It is good to have an inspiration, but ultimately it is your own skill, hard work, dedication and luck that will lead you towards your goals. Believing in your own abilities and creating your own path towards success is what actually makes you extraordinary. As a dancer, you will all go through many struggles, be it, physically, emotionally, financially or time-wise, but in the end what matters is your invincible spirit and never say die attitude.
However ordinary Nazar’s story may seem, but it is his ethics, conviction, persistence and dedication towards his dance that makes him special and extraordinary in his own way. After all, there is always something exceptional about a person who devotes his entire life to something that he is truly passionate about!
It’s a thing of the past to believe that in order to do something extraordinary, you need to have lived a life that is unconventional or out of the box. In all these years, there has been a change of sentiment in the world of art that has made us value the beauty in the ordinary. This means that you can be remarkable in whatever you do, with or without having an experience of living an extraordinary life.
Keep reading for many such stories!