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More about...
Megan Arnold
As far back as I can remember I always loved to dance. As a young girl I would constantly create elaborate dance routines complete with music and costumes and of course an audience (my parents and their friends). My parents decided to channel my dancing energy, so they enrolled me in ballet at the age of five. I danced until I was 12 years old at the Stanley Holden Dance Centre in Los Angeles.
Then, at the age of 12, I began to get a little bored, dreams of sugarplums were no longer dancing in my head, and I felt that ballet wasn't nurturing my desire to be a creative, expressive individual. My best friend was enrolled in artistic gymnastics and it looked so dynamic and exciting, so I decided to join the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics. It turned out that artistic gymnastics was definitely not the sport for me, I was too tall, graceful and lithe. Luckily, on the other side of the gym, one of the rhythmic coaches had noticed the same thing and she invited me to join the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics competitive rhythmic gymnastics team. Now this was a sport I could relate to! The combination of dance, athleticism, grace, femininity, creativity, expression and competition was just what I craved. I was hooked and there was no turning back.
I competed and I loved it, I made many friends and I had inspirational coaches. I advanced to National Level competitions and at my first U.S. Nationals I placed 2nd in the Free Event. When I look back, I was rather oblivious to my achievements. I was more interested in learning cool new moves, designing new bodysuits and traveling with my team. In retrospect I think my ability to be process-oriented rather than winning-oriented helped me to have a long competitive career. In 1987, my family decided to move away from Los Angeles (where I'd lived for fourteen years) and back to Canada, but I was addicted to rhythmics. It gave me focus, a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, it kept me out of trouble and opened up a whole new world to me, which set me apart from all my other friends at school who just hung out at the malls. So, when my family was choosing a place to move to, finding training was imperative to their decision. They chose Vancouver and my coach became Lori Fung, who had won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in L.A. Lori was still training as a gymnast, but she also took on coaching responsibilities of a few gymnasts, myself, Camille Martens, Trisha Gilmore, and Laura Eward. We were a small but happy team and our name was the Vancouver R.S.G. Club. After a few years, though, we parted ways. Unfortunately there were no other high level coaches in British Columbia, so I moved to Toronto to train with Kalev Rhythmic Gymnastics.
Back at home, it turned out that my mom was able to find two coaches who had just relocated to BC and two other gymnasts had left Lori's club, so I happily moved back home. It was springtime 1990 and Club Adagio was born. I christened it Club Adagio because I thought it was an appropriate name: "Club", where many people join in pursuit of a similar goal and "Adagio", a slow graceful movement in the middle of the carpet. The club started out small with only 5 gymnasts, but it grew rapidly. I competed in Canada until 1994. During that time, I was Senior Provincial Champion 6 times, I won numerous medals at the Coast to Coast Championships and the Canadian National Championships, and in 1994, I became the Senior Western Regional Champion. I enjoyed traveling to International Competitions and was proud to represent Canada. I competed in Rhythmic Gymnastics for 10 years.
During those years I had many coaches, good and bad. I made many friends/team mates... some wonderful (who remain friends today) and some rather difficult. This experience of working relationships itself taught me much. I was able to see many parts of the world at a young age. I have many trophies and I have tons of medals and ribbons tucked away safely in a box...but what really made a difference in my life was being involved in a beautiful sport that I fell in love with. My experience in Rhythmic Gymnastics taught me to never give up or give in to obstacles, it taught me to persevere and show grace under pressure, it taught me that good things don't come quickly or easily and it gave me confidence. It taught me to be compassionate and hard working, it taught me that there are times to be gentle and times when you have to get tough. It taught me how to deal with stressful situations and how to cope with fear and anxiety, and it taught me to do things for 'the love of it', but most of all it taught me to bring my heart and soul to everything I do. And that is what I hope to impart to all of the little girls that I teach.
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