M.I.N.D.ful Monday Musings #022
Current State Of Mind
Well it’s been a long while since I wrote an email. Looking at my site the last newsletter I wrote was October 20, 2022. It was month my dad passed away. So almost a year. Interesting to reflect upon that.
Not sure who is still here or will even open this email, but one of the content creators I follow is Ali Abdaal and I’ve really enjoyed his newsletter. He mentions in his newsletter a few times, that he views his newsletter as a public journal.
I think this perspective shift will help me be more consistent is showing up on sharing my thoughts more consistently, a lot has happened in the last year. The biggest of which is that I organized the 7th annual Neo Kizomba Festival and that was a lot of work getting back up and running again. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, this would have been festival #9. Crazy, to this of so many years…
I’ve really been reflecting on how I want to show up in the dance scene after so many years in the scene. What no longer serves me? What refuels my cup? Where do I feel inspired to show up authentically?
I have a few unedited podcasts that need editing, some git branches where I’ve hit some roadblocks building new features for [wherecanwedance.com](http://wherecanwedance.com/) (WCWD), and random ideas/inspiration for getting back on track with my musicality course. Lots of projects, with limited bandwidth and focus.
Revamping this newsletter should be helpful with just organizing my thoughts and act as a public journal for the things I’m building.
Part of the revamp is renaming this newsletter from the Intellectual Dancer’s Newsletter to the M.I.N.D. Newsletter. **M** - Musings & **I** - Insights of a **N** - Nerdy **D** - Dancer. I was playing around with some names for the newsletter in ChatGPT and stumbled across this acronym and resonated with my fascination of the mind and learning.
If you are new, welcome, if you’ve been hear from a year ago, thanks for sticking around!
Song I'm Currently Jamming To
I played this song in my Sunday closing set at Neokiz this year. It was a song I stumbled upon going down some rabbit hole on Spotify.
The song, if I’m not mistaken, is a Hindi song. The opening lyric goes “Dheere dheere se meri zindagi mein aana” which translates to, “Slowly, slowly enter in my life”
My Starry Eyed Waterfalls set from Neokiz 2023
Recent Content
I’ve created a lot of content of the year, though it almost never feels enough. One post in particular kind of went mini-viral before Neokiz where I simply listed 18 Reasons that someone could decline a dance that have nothing to do with you. The post was to foster a more understanding social dance floor culture where askers of dancers could receive a no gracefully without feeling offended or rejected.
The carousel on IG got like 600 likes, and in a nerdy flow of inspiration, I translated the carousel into Spanish, French, and Portuguese realizing this issue applies to every partner dance internationally.
I also wrote a blog that goes into some more nuance of the reasons behind declining a dance.
Photo of the Week
Me laughing hosting the J&Js in Boston.
Cool Video I'm Watching
I stumbled across this video in another newsletter I read where Jordan Peterson describes music in a philosophical way. It gave me some inspiration to continue to work on my “Ultimate Musicality Course For Dancers”
If you are interested in learning more about my musicality course, join the newsletter here!
Upcoming Travel
2023
10/26-30: Bailame Dance Festival - Minneapolis, MN
11/3-5: Neokiz Weekender in Warwick, NY
11/20: Neokiz Intensives in Atlanta, GA
12/1-4: Attending Elevation Zouk Festival - Denver, CO
2024
05/3-6: Neokiz Weekender in Edmonton - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
07/20-24: 8th Annual Neo Kizomba Festival in Austin, TX
Question Of the Week
How do you capture the lightbulb moments you have in your dance journey?
Answer of the Week
To date, I’ve hosted 5 Urbankiz J&Js. It’s been interesting to see the growth of the dancers who have competed. I was recently asked by a intermediate competitor, how do they stay motivated after not making it to finals?
We have to remember that J&Js are a mix of luck & skill. On the side of skill, of course there are lots of things to practice and improve on to help your presentation of the dance overall. On the side luck, you don’t know who you will be partnered with, the song you will dance on, and when the judges happen to be looking at you.
J&Js are still very new to kiz and there aren’t a ton of opportunities to compete compared to the Brazilian zouk where there is almost an opportunity to compete every month with a point system to track progress.
There’s a book called Motivation Is A Myth that argues motivation is the result of taking action, versus what’s needed to feel in order to take action. It takes courage to step up to compete and I feel it’s really important to think of the discipline to continue practicing over time long term.
Past Newsletters
You can view past newsletters here.
Dope Dance Resources
- A cool project to create a global directory of dance events.
- Find out how you can thrive at your next dance event with the Ultimate Dance Event Survival Kit.
- Find out how you can organize your dance journey with the Dancer’s Training Journal.
Thanks for reading!
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
