Current state of mind:

I've recently been geeking out and reflecting on this article and video around the concept of practicing analytically in order to perform intuitively by David Perell. I’ve been really enjoying how this notion resonates with me currently and also throughout my journey as a dance instructor. I’m even more excited to dig deeper into my analytical side of things to push my own limits of understanding, and an example of this happened recently actually.

Nerdy dance inspiration struck me at 3:30 am one morning after I woke up to take a piss. I was thinking about the concept of the Connection Trifecta in partner dancing and how my thoughts have evolved over time. I first had this idea over 6 years ago, and I actually recorded a YouTube video about it. If you want to see me nerd out when I was rocking a bald look you can see the video here, or listen to this podcast I recorded back in 2017. I basically talk about the 3 areas of awareness in partner dancing, which are yourself, your partner, and the music.

Looking back at my video from 6 years ago I can definitely notice my dominant left brain making the connections to give advice for better connection on the dance floor. It should come as no surprise that I’m more of a thinker than a feeler, however, through the last 7 years or so teaching kizomba I would say I’ve become a better feeler overall. Through teaching numerous classes, talks with friends, and reflection I’ve realized that thinkers and feelers took away different ideas when presented with the idea of the Connection Trifecta.

With my whole recent dive into being more intentional with my personal knowledge management in my life, I stumbled across this image of the left and right sides of the brain, it’s actually in the header of this email for this newsletter. It shows the left side of the brain being more logic-driven, so it has graphs and charts and such and the right side is more colorful and artistic is driven more by emotions.

So at 3:30 AM, it dawned on me that I could create a list to map out each of the 3 connection points I had in the Connection Trifecta and cross-reference that with the differences of the right and left hemispheres of the brain! Below is what I have so far, it will be in an upcoming blog and video, but you here that are subscribed to this newsletter get the first look! Let me know your thoughts!

THE SELF

Left Brain - Body Awareness

• How is your physical body moving through space? Where is your center of gravity, axis, and balance?

Right Brain - Self Awareness

• What is your mental and emotional state as you move through space? What energy are you wanting to bring into the dance at this moment or in general? What energies are you needing, wanting, desiring, craving, and/or open to exploring?

YOUR PARTNER

Left Brain - Partner Awareness

• What are the physical and visual cues and intentions needed to communicate and understand your partner?

Right Brain - Empathy

• What are you noticing about the potential mental and emotional state of your partner? What energies do they seem to be open or receptive to?

THE MUSIC

Left Brain - Musical Structure

• What is the genre, artist, language, tempo, of the song? What sections of the song you can recognize? What musical elements can you recognize and what are their individual patterns?

Right Brain - Musical Interpretation

• If there are lyrics, do you understand the language? If yes, what is the story behind the song from the artist? What is your interpretation of the lyrics/story? What feelings does the song inspire inside of you?

Song I'm currently jamming to:

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Voce Me Perdue by Beast Beats

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Recent content:

‍I finally finished editing the last part, part 4 of 4 of the Level Up Your Saida Series!

Question of the week:

What does it mean to you to practice analytically?

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Thanks for reading!

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Thoughts and feedback on the newsletter or on anything covered within are always welcome, just hit reply. The thing I love most about writing this newsletter is follow-up interactions with readers.

Charles

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