03/09/2024
“In the back of my head, I’m hearing those voices of my mom, ‘oh you’re not gonna have a future if you don’t have a degree in Israel, one degree, that’s not even enough. You’re gonna have two degrees to have a good paying job’. And I always heard those voices, and I said to myself, ‘I gotta do it. I gotta do it’. Though I’d been falling asleep in class, even missing some classes. The teacher was very sweet…I was portraying to her like I’m this hard working girl that is not in touch with her family and that I have to work late hours, so she was very compassionate towards me. Sometimes she let me get out of class to sleep on the bench outside and come back. Anyway, I struggled for months and even tried to link up with people from the school after to be ready. And I remember maybe a month before the final exams, I was watching dance videos on my phone, under the table. And I’m telling you, like in the movies, I hear the voice of my mom, of the degrees and this and that, and I’m like, “f this, I can’t do this anymore.” I just got up, like in the movies, I got all the books, went outside and threw them all in the trash. I remember walking out of that school and having a 50-50 feeling of extreme fear with extreme liberation. Does that make sense? Really, I felt like a free bird coming out of the cage, but she doesn’t know anything outside of the cage, so she’s free, but literally like that. And my life shifted from that exact day. I literally signed up for a dance studio, I think, the same week, I started taking dance classes. I’ve had the most beautiful time in my life since.”
-Doria “Dori” Levit, Israeli-born Florida based dance artist, Somoloco Friend
