Hi dancers!

I couldn’t decide on a particular topic, so I thought I’d just give you an update on my week. It was a busy week between my Burn classes, dance lessons including a coaching, and an all-day dance workshop.

This past week was Week 5 of 6 for the Burn fitness program. I’ve been seeing a lot of progress in my body because of the three nights of workouts for the last 5 weeks, although my knees are not very happy. I’m utilizing my ice packs and heating pad a lot more frequently. The cool news is I continue to get stronger, and can feel it in moves like the Waltz turns where I’m standing on one leg and the other is lifted up.

Dance lessons focused on Waltz this week. Now that I finally have a decent grasp on the choreography, we’re reviewing sections where I can incorporate more expressive movement. I’ve worked over the past 6 years to maintain my frame and posture, and now I’m being told I don’t need to worry about keeping my chest up and shoulders back constantly. I hear alarm bells in my head every time I fold forward in the beginning of our routine. Slowly, the bells are getting quieter as I adapt to this new level of dancing. It’s funny how the rules you learn to dance by at one level suddenly change or become obsolete at another level. Like learning to pass your feet in silver American Smooth after training yourself to close them in bronze.

Tuesday’s lesson was also preparation for a coaching with Teacher’s wife on Friday. It’s always helpful to get a female perspective on my styling. At the same time, I couldn’t help but think, “oh that’s what it’s supposed to look like” as I watched her demonstrate what she wanted me to do in the routine. I did my best to stay out of the comparison trap. Comparison should be used for inspiration and motivation only! Honestly, my body and brain were running short on energy by Friday anyway (Burn was tough this week!), so I focused on taking in as much information as I could and making sure I understood what she wanted me to do, even if I couldn’t actually do it yet.

The dancing wasn’t over yet. I went to an all-day American Smooth bootcamp on Saturday. Eight different coaches taught classes covering technique, choreography and artistry. I’ve attended many of these camps before and they always leave my body sore (my poor knees!) and my brain overflowing with gold nuggets of information. Saturday was no exception. Although I’ll admit, when I woke up to a chilly and rainy morning, it was tempting for a brief moment to just stay in my nice, warm bed. Of course, I got my butt out of bed and to the studio. The bonus for me attending this camp was I met a couple more of my followers I hadn’t met before, and I got to see others I only see at competitions or camps. It’s always nice to connect/reconnect with my dance peeps.

If you’re curious about what you can get out of a dance camp or workshop, check out the blog post I did after attending the last camp.

Sunday, I decided to stay home instead of going back to the studio for my weekly solo practice. My body just felt funky and off, so I opted to take a rest day. Resting is another part of training I’ve had to learn because my first impulse is to feel guilty about even thinking of taking a break. But rest is just as important as, if not more than, the active training, whether in dance, fitness or something else. Rest is when your body recovers and recharges to come back stronger and your brain fully processes the information it’s received. Rest also helps prevent injury and burnout, which can happen even when you’re doing something that you have an absolute passion for. If you never take a break from it, you’ll wear yourself out and won’t be able to feel that passion anymore because you just feel exhausted.

I noticed this week too that I’m starting to miss competition. My next goal is Ballroom Beach Bash, but me entering that comp will depend on how ready our routines are. We still have a lot to do! There’s always a competition happening somewhere, and the nice thing is there are a lot of comps within a couple hours’ drive. So even if I don’t make it to Beach Bash, there will be plenty of other opportunities to compete.

That’s about it from here. I can’t believe this coming week is the last week of Burn.  Six weeks went by fast. I’m thinking about signing up for the next round actually, but first I’ll see how my knees feel, haha. Tune in next week for a full summary of my experiences doing a fitness program and the results I got!

In the meantime, what have you been up to?  Let me know in the comments.

Happy dancing!