I didn’t dance much in the first month of 2023. Modern dance class was on a break, and I missed a couple Saturday Zumba classes. It starts to affect my mood when I don’t get my dancing on. Throwing on a 90s hip hop station on Pandora and doing a little kitchen dancing helps, but it’s not the same as going into the studio. I start to miss the challenge of class, testing myself with different exercises and routines. Dancing for fun is great and always a good mood booster, but in the long term, I need more for my dance soul to feel fulfilled.
Continue readingTag: ballet
Dancing Through Feelings
It probably won’t come as a surprise that my plans for this week’s post shifted dramatically on Friday. Something exciting happened just the day before that I couldn’t wait to share with you! If you follow me on social media, then you already know. 😉 Earlier in the week, the work being done on the roof was officially complete with the last section of wood trim painted. It was shaping up to be a pretty good week! And then it was Friday.
Continue readingDancing in Multiple Directions
I left the house to go dancing three days this week. It almost felt reminiscent of pre-pandemic life, except the variety of dance here is much greater. It’s a different experience working on different dances through the week instead of continuously building on my ballroom skills. My personal dance world is expanding as I learn and practice different styles. I’m getting to meet different people who all love to dance, but in different ways. It feels a little aimless, but as you’ll find out, I’m feeling better about that aspect.
Continue readingGoing with the Flow is Scary
We plan, God laughs.
Yiddish proverb
It’s March already, and while I’m not surprised that there is still a foot of snow on the ground, I am surprised and disappointed that I’m not back to taking ballroom lessons. I shouldn’t be surprised because I was there at every turn that delayed my return to ballroom. Always a good reason! But silly me still didn’t want to let go of her original plans.
If any four words were to sum up Life, it would be these four: We plan, God laughs.
You can interpret it in different ways, but I see it as a reminder that we cannot control the world around us. The Earth keeps rotating and Life keeps going, whether we like it or not. We try every day to control or at least predict, what the future will bring, but the best we manage is an illusion.
Continue readingNow on Medium – Hard Work Does Not Require Personal Suffering
My latest blog post is live on Medium, challenging the popular belief that hard work equals pain and suffering. Frankly, I’d rather laugh through the unavoidable mistakes that happen along my dance journey than cry!
Breathing Through My Arms
Happy Sunday, dancers!
As always happens, time seems to take off without me. I can’t believe there are only three weeks left in 2021! These last three weeks are going to be busy too. I’ll be covering the United Country Western Dance Council World Championships for FloDance over the next month. I reported on country western dance competitions pre-pandemic, and this coming January is the first pandemic-era UCWDC Worlds event. Just like the ballroom world, country dance was hit hard by Covid. So everyone is thrilled to finally be getting back onto the dance floor!
Be the Awkward Dancer
While ballroom dancing is my primary dance love, being in Maine without a dance partner has afforded me the opportunity to explore or revisit other styles of dance. In addition to a weekly Zumba class, I’ve been enjoying a weekly ballet class that is proving to be a challenge for my brain and body. When I saw the “adult and teen ballet” class on the calendar, I assumed it would be a class of beginner basics focusing on elements of ballet that would help anyone to improve posture and balance. The class went well beyond my expectations, to my surprise and then pleasure.
Continue readingCome Alive
The Greatest Showman was one of those movies that shouldn’t have worked. A musical about P.T. Barnum, a man who gained notoriety by exploiting people for profit and marketing racism to the masses in the form of entertainment? That’s just not right.
And yet, the movie was a major success! I’m a huge fan myself, and I think a big part of that success had to do with the underlying message that had nothing to do with Mr. Barnum. It was an invitation that appealed to that desire within all of us: to show up as our true selves, to shed the dreary gray uniform of the daily grind, and as they sing, come alive.
Is Dance a Relatable Art Form? Part 2
Welcome back, dancers!
Last time, I told you about a podcast I had listened to that really got the gears turning in the brain. I pondered the question, “why isn’t dance as relatable as other performance art forms like acting or singing?” I concluded that connection and shared experience were key. It’s easier for an audience to connect with actors and singers through a shared experience. Dance has a dualistic experience that happens externally and internally at the same time, and dancers don’t need an audience in order to feel fulfilled in their dancing. If a dancer isn’t able to bring the internal part of the experience out so the audience can connect to it, the audience won’t be able to connect and relate to the dance performance. As the panelists in the podcast episode discussed, this lack of relatability could be a major factor in how publicly successful dancers can be, compared to actors or singers.
So how can we make dance more relatable?
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 