Current State Of Mind

Here’s to the first newsletter of 2024! I hope you all brought in the new year in the most authentic way, from festivities and fireworks, or maybe snuggled up in a cozy blanket and a pen and notebook for some reflective journaling.

Here’s a list of prompts if you need some inspiration!

End of Year Reflections

I started my New Year’s resolution early by launching this newsletter and aiming to maintain consistency with it every week. Writing does good for the soul, I feel, especially in the development of ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc.

The theme I plan to carry into 2024, as before, is the consistency of posting content and enhancing that content with more substantial pieces for blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and courses.

I aiming that 2024 will be the year I hire my first overseas virtual assistant to help with post-production editing, which is currently my biggest bottleneck.

New Email Service

If you notice a slight difference in appearance, it's because I migrated to a new email service, which should allow for easier scaling as I begin building various email lists for the different activities I’m undertaking online.

Viral Fusion Newsletter Tangents

If you haven’t read my viral newsletter, you can read it here.

I feel like delving into point #3 this week:

How to navigate wanting to be a black educator but pushed into the stereotype of the black entertainer?

Something that I have been unable to erase from my mind once I saw this is the history of Black entertainment in the US or even the world.

Growing up in a low income neighborhood and reflecting on ways to “make it” was typically tied to some form of entertainment. Sports entertainment through becoming a professional athlete, music entertainment through becoming a famous singer or rapper, or media entertainment through becoming a famous actor or comedian.

Through mainstream media the successful Black people that make the headlines are Black entertainers, not Black business owners or entrepreneurs (like Mark Zuckerburg, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos) or educators or scientists. You don’t see a lot of Black mainstream media around Black intellect.

My experience as an urbankiz instructor over the past 10 years is that, often, I’m perceived or expected to act more like an entertainer, providing endless wonderful dances and videos of impressive demos.

My true passion is actually teaching though and maybe trying to be a teacher in a realm of a visual art like dance compounded with the quest and fascination of social media virality, the social dance scene consumer has been wired to seek entertainment.

I’ve found myself less and less inspired to run on the hamster wheel of endless free dance entertainment for the hope and wish of a festival booking or a private lesson, both of which being trading time and energy for money. There’s no medium that compounds leverage or investment over time.

Content creators like YouTubers search for video views and engagement as well but the backend with vehicles of scale from sponsors, Adsense, affiliate links and so much more allow YouTubers to scale to full time income and beyond where they can even afford to hire full time employees!

I’ll end here for now, but this has definitely been on my mind and soul for a while now.

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Song I'm Currently Jamming To

I typically listening to lofi hip hop when I’m am working at home but recently I’d been craving something smooth but also upbeat and I actually stumbled across a really dope India-amapiano mix that gave me what I needed!

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Recent Content

• [REEL] Explaining X, Y, & Z intentions in Warwick!
• [IMAGE] Connected calendars across WCWD.
• [IMAGE] The easiest hook step to lead.
• [PODCAST] 111: Interview with William Araujo
• [CAROUSEL] Carousel of the 14 communication channels of a dance class.
• [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

A random selfie in an elevator mirror in Minneapolis at Bailame.

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Dance Meme of the Week

Not sure where I found this one LOL!

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Cool Video I'm Watching

Multipliers: 5 Easy, High-Leverage Changes I'm Making in 2023

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Upcoming Travel

2024

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

02/1/4: Neokiz Weekender in Kansas City - Kansas City, Kansas

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

03/31 - 04/3: Victoria International Kizomba Festival (Hosting the J&Js)- Victoria, British Colombia

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

10/24-27: Zouk Conexao Festival - Atlanta, GA

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Question Of the Week

What are you inviting more of in 2024? What are you letting go of in 2024?

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Answer of the Week

Ask me a question to answer in my next newsletter!

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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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