As many of you know, if I could be doing any “style” of modern dance it would be Limón. I am so excited to be doing a three week intensive with the company at SUNY Brockport. It’s something that I have wanted to do for several years now and I am finally doing it. It’s been awhile since I have danced all day five days a week. It feels so great!
When I started writing this my intention was to talk about why I love
Limón so much. The problem is there are so many reasons, that my blog turned into one of those conversations that keeps flying off in different directions. It is for that reason I decided to focus on one thing, judgement. I have been reminded here how important it is not to judge yourself. It is a difficult thing not to do, especially as a dancer. Many of us are born perfectionists and we spend an unhealthy amount of time in front of a mirror. While that mirror is a great tool it is also a huge crutch for more reasons than you may think. I have noticed that in the past two weeks here, none of my warm-up or technique classes start by facing the mirror. We always start with an activity that faces each other, in a circle, or moves around the room. You start right away by looking inward and sensing what your body is saying or observing what it naturally wants to do. This sets a nice tone for the rest of the day. It is easy to get in a rut of coming into the studio and the first thing you do is look in the mirror and start judging what you see. This is really a distraction from what you are trying to accomplish and precious time and energy is wasted getting past the negative thoughts. I think over time your body starts to dislike the negative feedback. There is a radio broadcast that my father turned me on to called The Greatest Secret by motivational speaker Earl Nightingale. The big secret? “You become what you think about” He speaks of countless philosophers who in different words say essentially the same thing. I believe there is so much truth in that. There is a scene that comes to mind from the 2004 documentary What The Bleep Do We Know. There is a part where several water bottles have labels with different words on them like beauty, war, peace, etc. I don’t remember the exact words because it has been so long since I have seen it, but as a result the water molecules appear differently over time. Overall, I think the lesson of the day is spend less time judging and spend more time experiencing and exploring the tasks at hand. Not only will you make more progress, you’ll be a much happier person!
When I started writing this my intention was to talk about why I love
Limón so much. The problem is there are so many reasons, that my blog turned into one of those conversations that keeps flying off in different directions. It is for that reason I decided to focus on one thing, judgement. I have been reminded here how important it is not to judge yourself. It is a difficult thing not to do, especially as a dancer. Many of us are born perfectionists and we spend an unhealthy amount of time in front of a mirror. While that mirror is a great tool it is also a huge crutch for more reasons than you may think. I have noticed that in the past two weeks here, none of my warm-up or technique classes start by facing the mirror. We always start with an activity that faces each other, in a circle, or moves around the room. You start right away by looking inward and sensing what your body is saying or observing what it naturally wants to do. This sets a nice tone for the rest of the day. It is easy to get in a rut of coming into the studio and the first thing you do is look in the mirror and start judging what you see. This is really a distraction from what you are trying to accomplish and precious time and energy is wasted getting past the negative thoughts. I think over time your body starts to dislike the negative feedback. There is a radio broadcast that my father turned me on to called The Greatest Secret by motivational speaker Earl Nightingale. The big secret? “You become what you think about” He speaks of countless philosophers who in different words say essentially the same thing. I believe there is so much truth in that. There is a scene that comes to mind from the 2004 documentary What The Bleep Do We Know. There is a part where several water bottles have labels with different words on them like beauty, war, peace, etc. I don’t remember the exact words because it has been so long since I have seen it, but as a result the water molecules appear differently over time. Overall, I think the lesson of the day is spend less time judging and spend more time experiencing and exploring the tasks at hand. Not only will you make more progress, you’ll be a much happier person!
RSS Feed
