Current State Of Mind

Hello beautiful humans!

Alright, here we are on another Monday, which is actually my birthday today. I am 39 years young as you are reading this!

You may or may not have noticed that I missed the newsletter last week (12/4) after the Elevation zouk festival. I had started writing it but for one reason or another, I couldn't get over the hump to publish it, so I decided to give myself some grace and miss a week after 11 consecutive weeks.

I'm reminded of a snippet from James Clear's Atomic Habits about never missing twice.

Interestingly enough, today is the 11th of December, and I had an 11-week streak, and this will make the 12th newsletter after my hiatus, happening in December, which is the 12th month of the year. I don't know what relevance those numbers have, but I felt called to share them LOL!

I've been feeling called to expand my intellectual writing practice outside of the dance world. You can check out Ogarocious Thinks for more of my musings beyond the dance world.

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Zouk Festival Experience

The Elevation festival was a nice experience. It was great to see old friends and make new dance connections. Man, I was definitely out of shape to last a night of social dancing. Brazilian zouk (BZ) dancers are definitely athletes.

I competed in my 4th Novice BZ J&J; it was good to push myself outside of my comfort zone. It's been two years since I last competed. I remember I was going to compete last year at Elevation, but I accidentally double-booked myself with a private lesson.

I didn't make it to the semis; I think I would have been the 3rd alternate. I was hoping to at least make it to the semis, but it's all good and part of the journey.

I did have 6 hours of private lessons there in Denver, which was nice at a full-out zouk event.

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Further Fusion thoughts

I had another fusion-related post get a lot of traction over the past week. I shared some stronger feelings about being intentional about fusion and that labeling a dance as fusion shouldn't be an excuse for a lack of technique and learning of the fundamentals.

This post apparently sparked a lot of conversation about the continuing conversation of defining what is and isn't fusion. It was cool to see comments from OG dance people like Ivy Grey & Damon Stone.

Some people expressed fear of elitism. I don't feel a call to work on your fundamentals should be considered elitism.

What's wrong with learning? What's wrong with an intentional focus on developing a dance skill?

Some people expressed fear of a lack of fusion losing in the inclusive vibe for focusing on fundamentals. I also don't see why inclusivity and focusing on fundamentals are being considered as mutually exclusive.

In newsletter issue #031, I also questioned the definition of what inclusion means. Is it just virtue signaling? What are the signs of virtue signaling versus a track record of continuous efforts to "uphold" these virtues?

The level of variability in partner dancing at a social in just one genre is VAST. From the music being played, slower to faster tempos, to the varying personalities & skill levels of the people you will dance with in one dance style.

So in the fusion world, this vastness of variety is multiplied as the music pulls from a wider pool of musical genres. There are dancers of differing dance backgrounds on top of varying personalities and skill levels.

I would hope to believe that this increase of variability would inspire one to learn how the foundations of balance, posture, weight transfer, musicality, and even safety play out across different dance styles.

I feel one of the reasons the post sparked as much conversation as it did was because this rarely seems to be the case.

This segues back into my 17 tangents of my viral newsletter and point #15.

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Dance scene thoughts

How do we provide the steps and resources to educate, train, and improve instructors, DJs, organizers in the dance scene at large?

This is a loaded question for sure, so I will try to stay high level. As it currently stands, it seems that the barrier for entry is pretty low in most areas.

Where do instructors go to learn not just what to teach but how?

Where do DJs learn how to start DJing?

Where do organizers go to learn about building community and the business of event organizing?

Personally, I just copied what I saw others doing initially and then I started to become curious and ask questions about the reasons why we do the things we do. Where are we struggling? Where can we improve?

If we aren't intentional about what and how we teach, the stories we tell or don't tell through the music we play, or the events we organize, what kind of dance scene would that create?

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Looking back on 90 days of consistent content

My recent popular fusion post had some interesting FB insights:

Facebook also provided me with some data of my last 90 days, 451 posts, averaging about 5 posts a day!

And for giggles, here’s a peek at my Spotify wrapped since it’s that time of the year:

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I'll end it here for this week! I'm grateful for you opening up another newsletter! Peace!

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Song I'm Currently Jamming To

Stumbled across this track on a IG of a good friend by Young Miko.

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Recent Content

• [DANCE VIDEO] Me dancing urbankizouk at Elevation Zouk Festival.
• [FB REEL] A reel showcasing the timezone being updated automatically on WCWD.
• [FB REEL] Me mic’ed up in a snippet during a private lesson.
• [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!

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Photo of the Week

Throwback to a shoot I did with my friend Audrey in Montreal earlier this year.

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Dance Meme of the Week

Thank you Harris Kizomba for the meme!

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Cool Video I'm Watching

Another great video by Ali Abdaal on discipline.

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Upcoming Travel

2024

01/11-15: Attending Interfusion Festival (Available for Privates) - Arlington, VA

02/23-24: Neokiz Weekender in Guadalajara - Guadalajara, Mexico

03/1-3: Neokiz Weekender in Roanoke - Roanoke, Virginia

03/9-10: Neokiz Weekend Immersion: Workshops + Party - Denver, CO

03/15-17: Neokiz Intensive - Atlanta, GA

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

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Question Of the Week

How did you grow in your dance year reflecting back on 2023?

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Answer of the Week

How do I improve my dancing if I don’t have a practice partner?

During a practice session there are three things coming together: you, your partner, and the music. We could even say there’s a fourth of the goal of becoming a better dancer.

So you don’t have a practice partner, 3 of those things are still present: you, the music, and the goal of becoming a better dancer.

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Past Newsletters

You can view past newsletters here.

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‍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!

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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.

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Feel free to forward this to other friends in your circle!

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Charles

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