Learn how Lauren Heath’s Passion for Ballroom Dance Became a Driving Force to Turn Rejection to Triumph
Welcome to the Live Great Movement blog series called Stories of Greatness. Each week, we highlight someone applying the principles of the Live Great Movement to make a positive impact on their life and the lives of others in their community.
This week we highlight, Lauren Heath, an accomplished nationally-ranked ballroom dancer. Lauren is also one of the millions of high school seniors graduating this spring during the pandemic of the COVID-19 Coronavirus.
I asked Lauren if she had any advice for graduating seniors, she said, “There’s something to learn from every hardship. Don’t ask why me, but what can I learn from this? There’s a bright future ahead of us. Let’s go forward with passion to take what we’ve learned in school and go do good in this world.”
Meet Lauren Heath
To say that Lauren Heath is passionate about ballroom dance is an understatement. She loves it. As I interviewed her, I learned how she uses her passion for dance to create a driving force in her life to overcome rejections and challenges.
Finding the Passion for Ballroom Dance
During 9th grade, Lauren was introduced to an afterschool program on social dance. She quickly fell in love with ballroom dance. “Our instructor, Gioia Reni, taught me the basics of ballroom dance. I saw her passion for dance and the joy it brought into her life. She helped me truly discover my passion for ballroom dance,” said Lauren.
“Gioia was also an awesome mentor to me early in my dance journey. She believed in me, she helped me develop my passion for ballroom, and she helped me see the vision of who I could become as a dancer,” said Lauren. Lauren’s new passion for ballroom created a determination to become the best. She became a master student. She practiced day and night with coaches and other mentors.
“Gioia was also an awesome mentor to me early in my dance journey. She believed in me, she helped me develop my passion for ballroom, and she helped me see the vision of who I could become as a dancer”
“I learned quickly that it’s important to surround yourself with people who believe in you and see your potential. I also learned quickly that there would be doubters and rejections during my journey to become a ballroom dancer,” said Lauren.
Rejected but Never Down
Lauren learned that besides just having passion and a strong skill set for ballroom, she would have to learn to navigate the politics of ballroom dance. Ballroom dance is a judged sport. And like any judged sport, judges need to get to know you. They need to know your name and gain confidence in your technique and your presence on the dance floor. She turned that knowledge into patience and with patience she worked even harder.
“As I started to really pursue ballroom, I had a lot of struggles. At first, I struggled to get on teams and I struggled to find the right partner,” said Lauren. Lauren remembers coaches telling her that she would never be good enough and that she had started too late to learn ballroom dance.
“As I started to really pursue ballroom, I had a lot of struggles. At first, I struggled to get on teams and I struggled to find the right partner,” said Lauren. Lauren remembers coaches telling her that she would never be good enough and that she had started too late to learn ballroom dance.”
This didn’t stop her. She might have been rejected, but she learned to never let what people would say get her down. “I focused on the vision of who I could become. I knew I was getting better. I turned the rejections and the hurtful words into a driving force to work harder to prove others wrong. My passion to succeed became my driving force to push through the rejections. As I did that and worked harder, I became better,” said Lauren.
Moments Like These
As we pursue our passions, we can start to give back to others who also are pursuing a similar passion. That’s the magic and the gift or passions. A few years into ballroom dance, Lauren met John Graham, a Brigham Young University (BYU) ballroom coach. “John believed in me and saw my potential. With his mentorship, I made one of the BYU Ballroom dance teams,” said Lauren. Lauren started to see how her determination to work hard and not give up was starting to pay off. She started to get better and better. She gained confidence.
“John taught me to have an end goal and to work hard to arrive at that end goal. He always reminded me to learn to enjoy the moment even when it was difficult. As I did this, I began to celebrate the small wins of my dance journey,” said Lauren.
John had Lauren and her team memorize the following quote from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi before each practice: “Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.”
“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves”
Don’t Be Scared of Criticism
Lauren started to gain self-confidence. “Ballroom dance has given me self-confidence. And it’s not the self-confidence that is fleeting. I know that my value is not determined by what others say, but how I believe in myself. I know that with hard work and resilience I can overcome anything life throws my way. I’m in control of my self-confidence. As a dancer in the ballroom dance world, I have learned to crave criticism as it's the only way you get better. You have to know what you are doing wrong to be able to fix it and then you have to practice the right way over and over again. It's brought me a lot of confidence to be able to brush off what other people think and to really believe in myself by continually working hard towards my goals and just staying focused,” said Lauren.
“Ballroom dance has given me self-confidence. And it’s not the self-confidence that is fleeting. I know that my value is not determined by what others say, but how I believe in myself. I know that with hard work and resilience I can overcome anything life throws my way.”
Becoming One of the Best
Lauren teaches each of us to not give up when the criticism comes and it will come. If we can learn to push through criticism, we will find its gift. This year, all of Lauren's hard work paid off. Lauren and her dance partner, Quinton Williams, qualified for the United States National Amateur DanceSport Championship.
At the championships, they had their best performance and received top scores. This ranked them amongst the best dancers in the nation. Now a nationally-ranked ballroom dancer, Lauren has this to say about her journey, “There will always be people who tell you that you aren't good enough or think badly of you, but you have to learn to compete against yourself and improve yourself as much as you can because that is what matters most. Just always believe in yourself and never give up.”
“There will always be people who tell you that you aren’t good enough or think badly of you, but you have to learn to compete against yourself and improve yourself as much as you can because that is what matters most. Just always believe in yourself and never give up”
Just like Lauren Heath, who reminds us to never give up during criticism as we pursue our passions, there is someone in your city that needs your help, your talents, your passions, and your skills. As you unleash your greatness where you live, you'll help others do the same. Your influence of goodness will spread through your community and will inspire other communities around the world to join together to solve many of their most difficult problems. You are born for greatness.
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Author: Burke Alder
Pictures: Christie Gibson, Beyond the Darkroom