M.I.N.D.ful Monday Musings #033
Current State Of Mind
Hello beautiful humans!
Happy Monday again! This last week kinda flew by. Maybe it’s the end of the year holiday season and blurs by. Maybe it’s the realization that the end of the year is upon us again. Maybe it’s the fact my birthday is Dec 11th. The end of the year is always lots of reflection over the year and moving forward into the next one.
In coding news for WCWD, I finally got weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly (e.g. the 1st Saturday of the month, or the 1st Monday of the month). It’s really crazy what you can achieve with persistence and ChatGPT. I’ve compared it to my friends as standing on a ladder however many stories high and also building the next couples of rungs above myself to then stand on again. Maybe without the fear of falling to my doom lol.
I started a coding YouTube channel to document my coding journey, feel free to check it out and subscribe if that’s your cup of tea. I recently posted a video showing how I created a pop-up modal to give the user a choice between duplicating an event as a single event or a recurring event and then taking that event info and populating the appropriate fields!
As always, anyone can create a free user account and add artists or events for free! The mission is to have all of your events in one freaking place!
Continuing the questions I laid out in my last newsletter, in response to my viral newsletter, I am feeling pulled to talk about number 7, What did continued efforts of anti-racism look like in the dance?
Zooming out of the dance scene for a second, I’d like to shine a light on data, numbers, percentages, etc. Considering the data is accurate, it can help shine a light on feelings and opinions.
There are lots of data points that float around race issues in the U.S. Who knows how to actually go about trusting the accuracy of some when it comes to different areas around incarceration, education, economics, representation in certain spaces, the list goes on & on. In terms of representation, I feel these numbers can be a little easier.
Zooming back to the dance scene, I’ve heard many statements of we need more Black and BIPOC representation in the fusion scene and dance scene in general. So my brain goes, How many non-white people are organizers of fusion events and/or how many non-white artists and DJs have been hired in the last year?
Looking back over the last year will give us a snapshot of current numbers and assess, the numbers are probably not going to be good. From here we can look forward and assess the 1st quarter of 2024, how many events are on scheduled to happen and how many BIPOC artists have been hired? If the number is still low then, what are the barriers are to hiring them?
Last month, I took a class at Bailame with Juleon and he talked about the cultural history of kizomba obviously touching on colonialism and slavery. One point he mentioned was the ongoing culture of broken promises to “do better”. Just a long trail of broken promises spanning multiple continents from dealings with the indigenous tribes all the way to present day.
It’s not enough to just say, “I’m not racist and there should be more representation.” It’s not enough to give the visible stance of “solidarity” and then proceed to do nothing about it. It feels like those efforts are more about them “looking good” and not one of the “bad ones” than they are about making real change with meaningful action and accountability.
I’ll end it here for this week! I’m grateful for you opening up another newsletter! Peace!
Song I'm Currently Jamming To
Still loving her voice from the first time I heard Akanadja, here’s another one by Neyna.
Recent Content
- [FB POST] Thoughts on a true instructor.
- [FB REEL] Breaking down 90° variations from retrocesso.
- [FB REEL] Converting Basic 2s intro saidas.
- A quirky post from 2018 when I went on a ramble about the fetus vortex.
- A teaching moment from my time in Warwick going over T-Bone entries from saidas.
- A breakdown of the snippet of time I took to build out the recurring events feature with WCWD.
- A reel breaking down a reverse J-Hook Exit from my time in Warwick.
- A reel about missteps in your dance journey.
- A reel of a practice session with Rika in Boston earlier this year tinkering with CCW touch steps rotations.
- A carousel on actively seeking out feedback in your dancing.
- An image of the communication channels in a dance class and the 42 channels being used with the timeframes of before, during, and after a dance class.
- An image showcasing the 6 lanes of kiz.
- The 16-count phrase mapping worksheet is now available for download!
Photo of the Week
Probably one of my best shots all weekend, something about the flash worked just right. Follow me at Ogarocious Media.
Dancer is Serena Spears.
Dance Meme of the Week
Practice is important! Thank you Harris Kizomba for the meme!
Cool Video I'm Watching
What is your note-taking app of choice? I personally love Notion!
Upcoming Travel
2023
12/1-4: Attending Elevation Zouk Festival (Available for Privates) - Denver, CO
2024
01/11-15: Attending Interfusion Festival (Available for Privates) - Arlington, VA
02/23-26: Neokiz Weekender in Guadalajara, Mexico
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
How can we create schedules of accountability to improve in the areas we want to improve on zooming into our personal lives to zooming out of our dance scene at large?
Answer of the Week
When should a leader initiate the step in kiz from a still moment?
I feel it’s important to have an idea of what step do you want to lead which would help me adapt my internal state of tension before leading a step.
As far as the when, I feel a lot of instructors would say to start the intention on the and before the desired beat you the follower to step on.
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!
- Get the 16-count phrase mapping worksheet download for free!
- Join me at my urbankiz festival in Austin, July 18-22, 2024!
- The WhereCanWeDance.com Podcast - 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.
Feel free to forward this to other friends in your circle!
Charles
