All the Things You Learn From Dance, Aside from How to Dance

I was overwhelmed during my first rehearsal for the ballet Coppelia, but as they progressed through the month of February, I realized that despite my minimal ballet experience, I brought a lot to the table as a dancer. My skills and experience from dancing styles like ballroom, salsa, swing and even Zumba, proved to be extremely valuable as I learned and rehearsed a ballet routine.

In the corporate world, they would be called transferable skills. In this case, I guess they would be transferable dance skills. I guarantee you have some of these skills as well, even if you’ve only been dancing a short time. So read on to be reminded of how many skills you’ve amassed as a dancer!

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Patience and Persistence

I don’t know what to write this week, so we’re just going to start writing and see what comes out. Usually I have an idea by midweek, but this week – nada. My brain’s been a bit scattered and preoccupied, and with three months left in the year, I have this weird sense of “I’ve still got plenty of time” and “I’m running out of time.”

How about some dance-related stuff?

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“Trust” – That Ever-Elusive Dance Partner

A quick post.

I came across this video on Facebook, posted by Steezy:

I love Mitch Villareal’s very precise, yet smooth movements. Every one is executed with purpose and confidence.

Oh, if only I could dance like that!

The ironic thing is the title of the video is the reason I can’t: trust.

“Trust” is going to be my key word for 2016. I know I have issues trusting others, but the harder thing to admit is how much trouble I have trusting myself.

Teacher brings it up again and again. I whine or fret that I just can’t get something right, and he comes back with “it’s because you’re not trusting yourself!”

Point taken, I’ll work on that. Trust me.

Ask the Girl Episode 3 – Practice

I didn’t get any new questions for today’s episode, so I went back into my emails to see what people have contacted me about before I started this series.

The most recent question was from Nick; he just started blogging about his own ballroom journey here: http://theballroomjourney.com.

He asked how I fit in ballroom practice with work and the rest of my life. Since I had been thinking about doing a “how I practice” post anyway, it seemed like a good topic for this week’s “Ask the Girl” post!

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Countdown to USDC – 12 Days: Well, That Could Have Gone Better

Ever have one of those days where you just want to yell “I swear I’m better than this!” because the current evidence is indicating otherwise? Yeah, that was me during my last lesson.

I was such a good student. Arrived at the studio an hour before my scheduled lesson time. I did my stretches and I did a round of my bronze routines AND my silver routines, all on my own. The silver was a little questionable because I still don’t have all of the steps, angles, directions, etc. without Teacher leading me. But I got through them.

Then my lesson started. We were working on silver.

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