M.I.N.D.ful Monday Musings #026
Current State Of Mind
Greeting beautiful humans!
This past week I made a post about practice partners in the dance scene and it seemed very interesting that so many people (predominantly) women were actively looking for a practice partner, but haven’t been able to find one. I know a lot people go to weekenders and festivals to learn and to improve along with having fun and socializing.
Many people also come back to their local cities and lack the weekly classes, socials, and maybe even high level instructor (though more cost) to take privates with in their city. It would seem the “easier” possibility would be to find a like-minded dancer of close enough skill level in a city of hundreds of thousands to millions of people to practice with to continue the pursuit of progress in dance.
In the comments of the post is seemed in instances of female follow and male leader, practicing dance has become really muddled with “Netflix & Chill” but in actually “Practice Dance & Chill”, where some men are looking for an “opportunity” to be 1 on 1 with women and then potentially hook up.
In one of my comments I mentioned, “I say this not as an excuse but an one observation I've seen, I feel there's a decent number of men who are touch starved that start to dance as way to get some touch in their lives.Even outside of dance, most men only get their touch needs met through the person they are in a romantic relationship with.So as a single guy, social dancing is a nice outlet to break the barrier of more physical touch with the opposite sex than say a bar setting, but if this is the case not sure why there aren't more male leads in general lolWho knows if they are even aware of their touch needs.”
On the flip side, in instances of female follow and female lead with no premise of hooking up motives, there seems to still be difficulty of finding someone that can be consistent in showing up.
I recently broke down the tasks of setting up a local practice session with a friend to share some of the tasks. Here’s what I came up with:
- initiating the scheduling of the practice
- creating the calendar event
- checking in the day of to make sure it's still happening
- choosing the focus of the practice
- planning the distribution of focus during the practice
- catering to learning and feedback styles
- recording the practice
- uploading the videos
- reviewing the videos
- organizing the videos
- scheduling the next practice
If most of these tasks are falling on one person, I doubt the practice sessions would last. Also, in terms of reviewing and organizing the videos be sure to check out my Dancer’s Training Journal.
There was also some comments of opening up a practice partner section in the local city pages I have on WCWD, where dancers could post their interest and availability in wanting to find a practice partner.
It’s an interesting topic for sure that can go into so many areas and perspectives. Feel free to share any tips or experiences you’ve had.
I’m still working the communication channels, and in terms of the leader students and followers students talking with one another, that’s communication channels number 9 in the time aspect of after a dance class/event.
If we were to number the communication channels we would have 14:
- Lead Instructor to Follower Instructor
- Lead Instructor to leader students
- Lead Instructor to follower students
- Follower Instructor to Lead Instructor
- Follower Instructor to follower students
- Follower Instructor to leader students
- Leader students to Lead Instructor
- Leader students to Follower Instructor
- Leader students to follower students
- Leader students to other leader students
- Follower students to Leader Instructor
- Follower students to Follower Instructor
- Follower students to leader students
- Follower students to other follower students
Thanks for opening and reading another newsletter from me! Enjoy the rest of the newsletter and your week!
Song I'm Currently Jamming To
A really nice mashup on Soundcloud of Chris Brown & Victoria Monet.
Recent Content
- An urbankiz tip about learning the footwork on the opposite role.
- A new blog on embracing every dance in a dance.
- A post about the mostly women looking for practice partners.
- A post about finding tips for successful practice sessions.
- A vulnerable post about reflecting on conflict resolution and my childhood.
- A post about the potential steps during a rectangle saida.
- A post about the 3 senses we use during partner dancing.
Photo of the Week
I was able to meet up with my friend Melissa ex-Austinite now living in LA for some catchup time at Waterloo Park close in downtown Austin.
Dance Meme of the Week
We are all guilty of this, check out the Dancer’s Training Journal to stop flushing your time & money down the drain!
Cool Video I'm Watching
A cool video I’m watching on remember everything you read. We are really lost in a sea of information.
Upcoming Travel
2023
10/26-30: Bailame Dance Festival - Minneapolis, MN
11/3-5: Neokiz Weekender New York - Warwick, NY
11/17-20: Neokiz Intensives - Atlanta, GA
12/1-4: Attending Elevation Zouk Festival - Denver, CO
2024
05/3-6: Neokiz Weekender in Edmonton - Edmonton, AB, Canada
05/17-20: Kizowna 2024 - Kelowna, BC, Canada
07/20-24: 8th Annual Neo Kizomba Festival - Austin, TX
Question Of the Week
What’s the reason you don’t record yourself practicing by yourself? ego? lost in what to practice? fear? don’t have equipment?
Answer of the Week
How can I find a reliable practice partner?
I feel a good point with start with self awareness of your dance love languages, dance goals, level of priority in dancing. Do you have a good idea of what those are?
From there it’s finding someone who has similar enough dance goals. Here are some questions I ask private lesson students:
- What things are you aware of that you would like to improve in your dancing?
- What are your biggest challenges with improving in kizomba currently?
- What is your best way to learn?
- Visual
- Auditory
- Reading
- Kinesthetic
- How do you like to receive feedback?
- What are your love languages?
- Take the quiz here.
- What are your dance love languages?
Past Newsletters
You can view past newsletters here.
Dope Dance Resources
- A cool project to create a global directory of dance events for dancers, artists, and organizers!
- 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 1.0.
- Level up your kiz online with Mr. Neokiz!
- Learn more about the Ultimate Musicality Course For Dancers to level up your musicality!
- Join me at my urbankiz festival in Austin, July 18-22, 2024!
- Check out my dance podcast!
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
