Fleppie

You know, I have always believed that there are different levels of educating your mind. You have the academic level (intellectual), the spiritual/religious level (beliefs) and the knowledge of human nature (wisdom).

And I think these three come together beautifully in dance. If you look closely you can see a dancer’s intelligence, as in the way he or she masters his/her moves. You can also see their beliefs as in the way they move their bodies. To make this more visual, you can see whether they believe they can pull it off or not. This is totally independent of intelligence, or in dancing’s case, whether the move was actually technically correct or not, If you belief you can do a movement, you can still pull it off if you believe you can do it. That doesn’t mean it’s technically correct. But as long as you keep polishing away, it should get better and better. As long as you believe that it is still not perfect, you will keep growing as a dancer. And last but most certainly not least, their wisdom. Whether or not passion is expressed through their movement, or anguish, pain, happiness, fear, hope.  Any and all of the human emotions. This is the wisdom part.

I recently took some classes by mr Brian van der Kust and apart from the technicalities of the dance, I learned a lot from his dance knowledge and above all his wisdom. His biggest advice was: Shop around, get to know different teachers, different styles, different ways of dancing and different ways of teaching. (These last two  are totally separate things) It is much harder to try to get your body to unlearn wrong things, then it is to teach it the right things.

Educate your mind before you let that teacher educate your body.

Dance is more than just a range/series  of movements; it is creativity, flow, expression, being as much part of the music as the music is part of you. And it takes time, so be patient. But in the meantime, enjoy it. Look back to a year ago and see what you have accomplished.  And then look forward and see what you have to/want to accomplish. And shop around. Educate your mind. Everybody dances and teaches differently. The more knowledgeable you are, the better a dancer you will become.

As for me, I recently rediscovered that I had been focusing a lot on partner work these past few years (something the male salsa dancers focus on a lot, sometimes way too much) and that I need to train my body more as an independent dancer. So it’s time to put some oil on these joints again.  

Adelante siempre voy, you never stop learning. Shoot for the moon and you might land on some star.