About megan
 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 body suits 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
'84 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 as well, two other gymnasts 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 young women that I teach.
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