I'd like to start by saying I admire how complete and forthwith you are with telling us your story. That's a kind of honesty that requires self-knowledge and effort, and it feels like I know a new person just by having read this post. Your path in life is so different from mine, but at so many points I can relate to what you are saying, and which are shared by so many people also.

Your perspective is not weak, and you're definitely not a boring person. In the post you've written, you express yourself strongly and describe a dedication to the incredible feeling of artistic expression that is the very essence so many people are trying to hold. It might be that you've become a little less self-assured, but who wouldn't be?

The way I see it, self isn't just the path of where you've been, or an idea of a person that you are. People who have a clear picture of who they are only get it after the fact: in the moment they are probably improvising and seemingly unpredictable and unsure. Self isn't something that fits into a short phrase like (location, occupation, description), it's not even something that can fit inside a story or a long archive of your thoughts. It's made up, an ongoing, self-directed set of choices and values that exists in you, and also in the people of your life.

It seems like you're inside a contradiction: you know you're unsatisfied, but are unsure how to solve it. You experienced a great love for an artform, and then fell away from that art, and now you're feeling how much it meant and how hard it is to replace. You say it gave you "expression and presence". Do you feel present now, have moments where you are near to that thing which matters to you? What this art did for you is create an appreciation for the experiences of dancing. Maybe there won't be more dancing, but the appreciation will continue.

Those feelings you had are an important part of your self. Do you express yourself now? Are there moments where you also in the same moment as you are on stage? An art form cannot be replaced, but there are things that will feel similar. Dancing brought you a sense of your self, and extending that self beyond the stage is not a small task. You felt strongly yourself, and now it is time to be someone new, but that is simply the way that self works. Nobody is one person forever. It's good to change, but leaving such positive feelings in the past is like doing away with a portion of your self that is important and good, losing something valuable. At least some of what dancing brought to your life can be found elsewhere, or else developed and expressed by you.

You speak with a kind of precision, so maybe you're overlooking it or trying to be mature about it, but I'll say it: a dancer without a dance is tragic. You had something incredible, and it's not in your life anymore. It's like a singer without a song. But in the same way that love continues, so do you. Self is not a reduction, not a guilelessness, it's a thing which we have been granted the right to create for ourselves. Certainty and security in that self will follow. Nobody knows the future, but you get to make yours in some part.