Category: The Student Perspective

Moving Sale! And Giant Forest Trolls

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Happy 4th of July everyone! And to my fellow fur parents and their fur babies, hang in there. It’s almost over.

People around us have been shooting off fireworks all week, so it’s been really rough for my boys. Yesterday evening, we drove up and down the coast for about three hours just so they wouldn’t be at home, panicked and waiting for the next bomb to drop. We’ll be doing the same tonight.

In more exciting and happier news, we hit the road for Maine in just a week! I’m working to consolidate my belongings so there won’t be any problems fitting them into my new-to-me station wagon. Aligned with that goal, I want to announce a special Moving Sale at the Practice Ballroom Dance shop! Help me clear out some inventory before I hit the road AND set yourself up for dancing success with free shipping on everything through July 9.

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Starting a New Chapter Requires Ending the Old One

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After I renewed my apartment lease the last time, I hit a point when I had to decide to move onto the next chapter or stay stuck in the current one. How much longer could I realistically continue living like this? I was constantly walking this financial tight rope in order to take ballroom lessons and compete while also living in Southern California. It was frustrating to see every raise from work be wiped out by the next rent increase. I felt like I could never get ahead.

So why stay? My job can be done from anywhere with an internet connection. I have family and friends here, but I also have family and friends back East. My dogs would certainly benefit from living somewhere with less noise and asphalt and more trees and grass.

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Getting Grounded to Take Flight

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When I first had an inkling that I was going to need physical therapy for my knees, before I even got the official word from my orthopedist, I started to research PTs because I wanted to make sure I saw one who worked with dancers. There was no way I was going to see a PT who didn’t understand why I had to keep dancing at least a little bit while I recovered from my injuries. Lucky for me, Doctors for Dancers had just launched and a PT local to my area had added herself to the database of dance specialists.

Two+ years later, we’ve gotten my knees back into dancing shape (mostly), but we’re still working together on other issues. Besides just directly working on healing my body, my PT has been helping me better understand my body and increase my body awareness, which has just been a boon to my dance training!

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Focus on Your Own Dance Journey

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Reaching out to my dancers today who may be feeling like everyone except them is getting to resume their regularly scheduled dancing program, full of in-person lessons, social dances, showcases, and/or competitions. This post is for you.

My current dance status: I’ve been lucky to have had in-person lessons for a number of months now. They were intermittent through the second half of 2020 and became more regular after the new year. Currently, I’m taking two private lessons and one group class a week. My last competition was February 2020, and I don’t know when I’ll be competing again. Two of the competitions that I was hoping would be my pandemic-era return to the floor have already passed.

Compared to some, my dance journey is awesome right now. I’m getting to dance regularly. I’m getting to work with my teacher in person. Heck, my studio survived the pandemic shutdowns! Compared to others who have already managed to compete multiple times in 2021, my dance journey is…ok, better than nothing. At least I’m getting to dance, right?

Whether my dance journey seems awesome or just ok to you doesn’t matter. Because it’s my journey, not yours.

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Rediscover Your Dance

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Would you believe I had dance four days this past week? Two private lessons, a studio party (!), and a group class this morning. I could have taken advantage of a group class discount on Friday as well, but I needed a night at home. It was the closest I’ve come to my pre-pandemic life in over a year.

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Live Life Passionately: An Interview with Megan Cross

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Dancers, please welcome Megan Cross to the blog! Megan has been learning ballroom for just under a year. She started with Fred Astaire Dance Studios of Laguna Hills, CA in the middle of the pandemic and has already conquered a team match and two showcase performances, and is preparing for the Fred Astaire World Championships! Like your host, Megan is also a writer. She recently turned her passion for vintage into a blog called The Vintage Love Letter. I was eager to sit down with her and hear about her initial impressions of ballroom dance and her experiences during the first year of her dance journey.

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Progress Doesn’t Always Go Forward

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I was a little frustrated with my dancing this past week. After a breakthrough the week before and feeling like I was understanding more about why my body hurt while dancing and how to fix it, I went home from Tuesday’s lesson with my back aching in that old trouble spot. We were working on Foxtrot, and I thought I employed the same tweaks as the week before that made my movement in Waltz so much more powerful and less painful. Apparently not, or at least not with the same results. Thursday, we returned to Waltz and while I felt like I made some minor progress, my back was still aching.

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Understanding Why My Body Hurts

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Mask by WickedWomanStudio

Happy Saturday, dancers! Life has kept me busy over the last few weeks. I was travelling for about a week (airports and airplanes were a lot fuller than my last trip in February!). The day after I returned home, I was sitting in line to get my second dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine. I’ll be fully charged in another week, yay! Go go gadget Covid shield! For those interested, I had one day of fever and body aches following the shot. Unfortunately, the body aches triggered one of my headaches (it doesn’t take much) and that hung around for several days. It was interesting how the fever and body aches came and went. I described it to a friend like doing a system check – flip the switches on and then flip them off. I was feverish and then I wasn’t. There was no lingering.

Luckily, I was free of all symptoms in time for my first dance lesson in two weeks. I didn’t have the opportunity to solo practice while I was gone (aside from visualizations), so my body was either going to love or hate me for jumping back in. Sometimes I feel like the Tin Man during those first few dance steps as I shake the rust off my joints. Our warmup Waltz felt pretty good though!

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