Let the music guide you

Image: manuel MC

So many realizations, so little time...

The main one is probably that I've been dancing like a blind person these last three workshops, chasing steps and all the while ignoring the one guide that was always there: the music.

It's like that exercise we did with one person leading another with their eyes closed - that's what happens on stage: You surrender to the music, you trust it and you go with the flow, whatever is thrown at you.

Image: Tilemahos

I couldn't decide which image to use for this post - the giant boombox with the international group of dancers and the small boombox in front of it or the music box ballerina, so I posted them both.

I like the ballerina because though stuck in her box, she's forever tied to the music. She won't dance when the lid is closed, i.e. there's no music and she'll only stop when the music does. This one plays Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".

Realizations are like seeds

Image: Joe Lipson

Realizations are like seeds: They need soil, water and sunshine to grow.

Sometimes, we have the soil, i.e. the right environment but sunshine and water are missing.

Sometimes, we have the soil and sunshine, i.e. the information but water is missing.

Sometimes, we have soil and water, i.e. reinforcement but sunshine is missing.

Sometimes, we have all three but still nothing is happening because the seed is not receptive.

Only when all three - soil, water and sunshine - are present and the timing is right, i.e. the seed is receptive, can real growth happen.

Beauty and the Chest

Image: Chris Willis

OMG, major realization and I wasn't even in class today - just revising the Womanizer routine in the studio with a senior dancer who was kind enough to revise at my speed.

So, the realization is - I have been dancing without my chest for 3 years! Sounds silly but it's true. I've done legs, arms, shoulders, hands, feet - anything but chest! I can do chest isolations during warm-up (it took me 11 months to locate my chest though) but it actually took me this long to incorporate it into my dance.

Oh well, better late than never. And just in time before workshop. Let's unveil the new and improved me - wheeeee, here I come!

And yes, now that I'm using it, my chest is hurting!