Hi dancers! This week’s post is available on Medium:
Read on Medium: My Week-Long Anxiety Attack
Tag: mental health awareness
Sometimes You Just Gotta Check Out
If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, you may have noticed that I typically post a new article every weekend, with the occasional bonus guest post or interview in the middle of the week. Last weekend, I decided not to post. In fact, last weekend I decided to check out of several of my usual activities, including watching or reading the news and checking in on my social media feeds.
It was all part of my election week selfcare plan.
Continue readingIt’s the Little Things
As we advance along our ballroom dance journey, the fixes, adjustments and tweaks we make to create higher quality movement become smaller and smaller. We learn what the steps are, how to do those steps, and then how to actually dance in between and through the steps. Each level builds on the one before it. This process can get frustrating though because every time you start to think you know what you’re doing, you find out you’ve barely scratched the surface.
Continue readingGuest Post: Journey of Healing Through Dance
Patrick Bailey, a fellow writer, reached out to me recently. He has a close friend who, like so many of us, discovered the healing powers of dance. Here is her story, as told to Patrick.
If you are struggling with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or addiction, please know you’re not alone. Help is available. Reaching out for support is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Continue readingDancing Back Into Society: One Step at a Time
My second in-person lesson post-shutdown is in the books! As I danced my Open Waltz solo and felt sweat dripping off my nose underneath my mask, I told myself I was getting extra stamina training for when we return to the competition floor. No sarcasm intended. I love making the most of a moment.
Continue readingA Mind for Dancing
Clarity of mind leads to clarity of dancing.
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo
Mindset has been on my mind lately. I find it fascinating how our perception and attitude can have a profound effect on our behavior and experiences. If you walk into the studio with the mindset that you’re going to have a great time working through challenges with your teacher versus walking in with the mindset that it’s just going to be another lesson full of mistakes, you’re going to wind up with two very different experiences. Even if you make the same number of mistakes.
Continue readingDance Your Truth – A New Workshop About Dancers
Coming to you midweek to share details about the latest workshop in The Girl with the Tree Tattoo online series, Dance Your Truth!
This workshop is going to be different from other dance workshops because it isn’t about dance. It’s about you, the dancer.
Continue readingDancing With Just Me
Week 7 of staying home has passed, and we’ve entered a new month. Some areas of the country have given up the quarantine life and made attempts to resume some sort of “normal.” The state I live in maintains its stay-at-home order with no specific expiration date. A ballroom competition just a couple states over announced it will proceed as planned in June. At the same time, a week-long dance camp scheduled for the same month in a neighboring state announced it was cancelling its in-person events and pivoting to an online platform.
Our current reality is full of discontinuity. For every argument, there is another to counter it and a third to counter both. It can be difficult to know who or what to believe or trust. Not to mention there is still a virus spreading and mutating around the world with widely varying effects and side effects.
What’s a ballroom dancer to do?
Continue readingA Review of WCDC 2020: All’s Well That Ends Well
My first competition of 2020 is officially complete! The Fred Astaire West Coast Dance Championships turned out to be a great way to start the season, though the final steps of the journey to this point were rough.
Continue readingGuest Post by Christiann Miranda – I Never Really Knew
This month, I invited another dancer to write her own story. We met through Instagram of all places. Her Instagram account (@girlinthe_vans) is mainly videos of her dancing at a gym. No fancy costumes or glamorous settings. Just her, the music, and dance. The story behind these videos is full of pain and loss. But always, there was dance, ready to act as a lifeline when she reached for it.
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 