What do you do when you feel you're trying you hardest to do your best, and your teachers only response is "Do better. I dont see any effort. It's like you're not even trying"? You try harder. It's a lesson i'm learning is that there's always a little more. More extension, more lift, more balance, more presence, more determination, more energy, more more more. For a long time I thought I was working hard, that I was really trying, but I'm learning that for the past 8 or 9 months I've barely been trying at all with dance. Just because I was sweating and getting tired I thought I was giving it everything I had. What I didn't realize was that I was just going through the motions. I was doing the steps, but I wasn't dancing them!

That's all changing starting now. I can be the best, but to do it I have to work harder than everyone else. If you want to get better at something, you practice it. If you want to get batter at it than someone else, you practice better and harder than they do. If you want to get stronger, you do things that make you stronger. When I've been dancing for an hour, and stretching for half an hour, and it feels like I just cant go on, I have to remind myself that I want this more than anything. You tell your body what it can take, and that there's more to do, dont let it tell your your limit. Mind over body. The best isn't enough, because there's always more to give.

Taking the easy route makes you lazy. I wont be lazy. Dance is hard. It's hard to feel good about it, it's hard to look good about it. But that's what makes dancers athletes; they put the time and energy into training to be able to do what the average person can't. That is why it's so spectacular! that's why it's so full of awe! that's what keeps the audience captivated! Easy makes you lazy. Doing something hard, that's what makes you amazing.

You get out of something what you put into it. I want to be the best, as I've said, and I'm going to go at this with everything I've got. I'm giving this 200%, because I want to be better than everyone who's giving 100%. I will work twice as hard. I have twice the determination. I want this more than anyone, and I will do anything I have to to get it.  Practice makes perfect. So I'm going to practice. I'm done being lazy about dance! I'm done pretending to try and faking effort. I'm doing this thing full-out, because I love it. I will earn the right to call myself a dancer.
~Rocky