M.I.N.D.ful Monday Musings #038
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I have this t-shirt as well as 10+ other dance styles to choose the shirt that most speaks to your dance soul!
The shirt was inspired by the writing on the back of American currency where we see, “In God We Trust” and then I saw a shirt that had the phrase “In Art We Trust”. So I then created a dance version of this!
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Current State Of Mind
What makes a great social dance?
At this last Interfusion I had some great social dances that I’m still reminiscing about. It makes me reflect on what actually makes a great social dance. I feel a lot of us have many dances that we have remembered for years and years.
Each of us are different and in different seasons of our dancing journey we can desire and crave different things in our social dances.
I’m recalling my viral carouse l that sparked a lot of conversation around reasons that we can decline a social dance that have nothing to do with the asker.
Dancing with Helen
One of my best dances at Interfusion was dancing with Helen. She’s the one in previous newsletters I mentioned that gave me the compliment of having “quiet hands”.
Helen is shorter and smaller than I am, so I felt I was able to use that to create different spinning dynamics in our dance. There was a lot of moving, grooving and having fun. It was awesome to find mutual “groove” points in our dances that did not neatly fit into Brazilian zouk or urbankiz.
It’s not uncommon for me to be asked whether I dance hip hop when I’m partner dancing. I feel this comes from a overall bounce or groove I bring to my social dances to just enjoy the beat and find it’s groove and through that energy I find the dance style I’m trying to lead.
Is hip-hop inspired fusion the glue that helps me flow between Brazilian zouk and urbankiz?
What is the dance that happens in between the steps? or in between two different styles?
There’s the one dance quote that I hold onto that goes, “The dance is what happens in between the steps.” or something along those lines.
If I’m not careful/aware, I can definitely fall into being too technical in my steps and forget that I’m also dancing.
A great phrase Helen shared at the end of our dance was she views herself as a dancer first before falling into a Brazilian zouk dancer.
So it seems she has fun dancing and grooving in ways that might not exactly fit in any particular style but fits great in the mutual groove flow in the moment of the dance.
If you haven’t seen video on the love languages of dance, check out here. It was a spin-off concept from the 5 Love Languages applied to social dances. It’s not an end-all-be-all definition or “boxing in” of our dance experience, but it’s a pretty a cool way consider our dance tastes and if anything spark reflection and empathetic conversation and curiosity.
This why I keep a dance journal to reflect on those dances before the memories fade away.
Global dance calendars
If you weren’t aware the dance style buttons you see on WCWD are clickable. It takes you to the dance style page where there’s a list of all the events and artists associated with that dance style, as well as a global calendar view!
Anyone can create a free user account and any event tagged Brazilian zouk with automatically appear on the global dance calendar!
The Ever-Expanding World of Fundamentals
I stumbled across the graphic from Tango Schema (who appear to be a tango-teaching couple based in California)
Here’s the caption they shared:
"Last night, we taught a simple turn and demonstrated that when it is controlled—it naturally turns into a colgada (a counterbalanced, off-axis turn). Of course, everyone wanted to learn “that cool colgada,” failing to realize that “that cool colgada” was simply the result of mastering that basic turn rather than something different or separate from it. This is true for most “advanced” movements in tango.When learning, we often aim for “advanced” movements, believing them to be distinct from the basics. However, these “advanced” movements are simply the fundamentals executed with a deeper understanding. Consider this shape – it appears complex, but it's fundamentally composed of simple triangles. Similarly, in dance, mastering the basics is the start; learning how to apply the basics in complex ways is the real challenge.”
This holds true for so many dances!
I’ll end here for now! Thanks for opening and enjoy the rest of your week!
Song I'm Currently Jamming To
An afro latino kizzable track.
Recent Content
- [FB VIDEO] Demo with Ninja to “One Man Can Change The World” by DJ Chad
- [FB VIDEO] A video from a novice Brazilian J&J dance with myself and Wendy.\
- [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.
- [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
A shot from Interfusion of a nice Brazilian zouk flow moment.
Dance Meme of the Week
Another goodie!
Cool Video I'm Watching
The 1% Better Rule by Thomas Frank!
Upcoming Travel
2024
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
04/19-21: Lucas & Thayna - Dallas Zouk Weekender - Dallas, TX
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
Question Of the Week
How does one know if they are a musical dancer?
Answer of the Week
Blank for this week!
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
