The Truth

Would you believe me if I told you that I have amazing new stories and great ideas to share with you here even if I have been neglecting to put my sketches to posts?

No?

Well… serves me right.

The truth is, I have a new yoga group in my care that started from zero and is growing bodies and the bodies are growing in strength and knowledge about themselves through the practice. They are all so wonderful and I love them so much, but they forced me to go to my anatomy books and yoga texts instead of writing for my blog.

Also, I'm traveling often right now and auditioning for the summer season dance gigs so I go through the day underslept and with little time to spare.

But when one of the girls from my class approached me saying that she youtubed some yoga and praticed at home, I wasn't happy about it but worried. She admitted that her neck hurt a bit during a part of the finishing sequence (and reminded me of a post I should be writing about why plough position and the so-called finishing sequence is bad for you) and asked me about why is that.

This girl has a lot of questions and when you answer one of them, two more arise. She wants to know everything, from anatomy issues to my training background.

This is a place where a teacher might start to feel awkward. You cannot really explain important issues in five minutes prior to a session or after. You have to keep your answers short but to the core and help your clients understand the concepts they've been told about during their session, while doing the work.

Also, I have no official RYT training or diploma (in fact, one of my yoga idols doesn't require teachers at her studio being certified, as far as I know). Money issues have been to blame for that, mostly + once  I had the money, I decided to put it into pilates training instead, because it offered a more healthy – functional view of the body and clear teacher tools that were applicable not only for pilates but for any movement based body of work.

I have no problems with myself not being a certified RYT because I learn constantly about safety issues and teaching skills. And am not limiting myself to one source. What I do, I do it until I have full grasp.

I have never had anybody hurt in my class, but I have taken in others who have been hurt in other yoga classes, especially during finishing sequences.

But then again, when I say it out loud to a client that I have no official yoga training or diploma, it sounds like I'm revealing too much. Everything revolves around papers nowadays, doesn't it? Don't I seem like a phony then?

Not really since anybody can pay for their “online yoga certification” in thirty days or less. I know way more than somebody who woke up one day and payed a hefty sum in the name of spiritual awakening.

And it doesn't make me fake in the eyes of the people I teach when I tell them the truth. There really is no other answer.

So don't be afraid of questions but answer them truthfully. And never stop asking.

No Risk Pilates

Life is but a chance we take. A lottery ticket that may send us to heaven or hell.

One minute you’re fine, the next you’re gone. A car might hit you on the street. A building may collapse. The zombie apocalypse or some other weird shit comes down to the land of men to take its prey of brains.

Every time you enter the studio, you are risking the limbs of your body, your safety and well being. Don’t believe me on that one? It doesn’t change the truth – sitting down will kill you, but dancing or weight bearing/stretching based exercises applied the wrong way will screw you up beyond all proportion.

This is why I am a total geek on anatomy. This is why sooner or later I will enroll myself to a PT college. And why I am crazy about youtube/vimeo education videos along with books and training from qualified smart people. (But I have to tell you, it was hell before I found out how to see for yourself is someone qualified to teach you – credentials aside – they help by pointing you in the right direction but might as well mean nothing – there are a lot of quacks with credentials out there).

I have seen pilates teachers with severe injuries to their spinal discs just months away from total herniation. Brought upon themselves, with all needed credentials, by poor technique.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at the mechanics of cord impingement.

That is why my personal mission is always to seek out new information, new knowledge and smart people that develop it, but not accepting it without logic and evidence backing. If I hadn’t done that, right now, I would be the broken one.

To be there before the problem arises is a must if you’re doing athletic work of any kind with yourself or with clients. When I say “athletic”, I mean it encompassing everything from mainstream sports to yoga, pilates, gyrotonic, pole, hoop, aerial arts, cirqus arts, corporal mime, bellydance of any style, ballet, contemporary, jazz, ethnic dance, tap, flamenco, classical indian, persian, really any sort of movement.

If you need to move – you need to

1. Move functionally
2. Cross-train
3. Develop strength and mobility

And Joseph Pilates is so nice to give us contrology for that. While Blandine is such a nice girl to give us deep understanding of it.

Her new book is out in english, called No-Risk Pilates: 8 Techniques for a Safe Full-Body Workout and I am dieing to get it. If your exercise regime is giving you more pain than strength, maybe you should die to get it too.

Good luck on this hard and rewarding voyage. :)

Let Me Take You On A Ride

It’s evening, your day job is over if you’re lucky enough to have one. And you feel overwhelmed. Either you worked all day or spent it in your bed or something else, you got online or visited a hafla or a show and felt guilty for not practicing enough to be like those women on those stages.

I know, they look like they’ve hatched from dragon eggs and danced since four years old in professional studios with enormous quantities of serpent blood flowing through their veins.

Maybe you want to “go pro” but see in clear mind that you’re not there yet and won’t be for ages while you ain’t getting any younger as time passes by, and you slave away doing something else out of necessity.

Maybe you just wanna be pretty on stage couple of times a year, but the video after the show always leaves you in tears hating yourself and wishing never to take one dance class ever again.

But let me tell you something... it’s not about the money or looking good (but you are sure as hell not going to perform for free when wage should be earned!), it’s about that special feeling you have when presenting to the world something you slaved over for forever. It’s about the learning curve and experience gathered, about having fun and being an artist.

It’s about transforming into a woman hatched from the dragon egg, a seductive Medusa that turns you not to stone but hypnotized pudding shivering to the beat of her serpent gypsy soul uninhabited by fear or doubt.

It’s about being fearless, a perfectionist dancing like no one’s watching, celebrating yourself, the dance, your public.

There is no need to have perfect moves or technique, we will never have that. And there will always be better, smarter, stronger, younger, richer, more famous, more slinky, more more more, there will always be more dancers, period.

No need to go into the rabbit hole to bury your angst beneath ground. Except if the rabbit hole takes you to Wonderland. Then it’s okay.

Just don’t demonstrate what you cannot do but rather show what you can do while working on the other stuff.

David Swenson’s book I own, Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual, quotes at the end of the last page someone wiser than all of us saying something like, If we would wait for perfection to start something, we would never do anything.

A very free paraphrasing off the top of my head, mind you.

Lamia!

Until I get into one of my "write blog posts to last you two months mode", not to mention, a guest post on some really important stuff for your healthiest bellydance body ever (sorry about that A. :/), you will just have to do with this video of the great Lamia. Hope to be able to study with her at some point in time or another.

New FB Official Page

While  writing up new texts for the blog and preparing for a guest blog swap with a fellow dancer, I just wanted to inform you all about my new FB page made for my modeling side-job under the name of Misfit Amy.

I will be posting more albums when time permits, figure out how to keep the image quality (fb really takes it out of them :(( ), and update with stuff I am working on, modeling or dance wise or whatever wise. :)

Also, it is another channel through which you can get in touch with me so feel free, I am happy when you do. :)

How to Learn Dance Choreography

Repetition is key here, but I will give you a couple of great tools I worked through myself. The idea here is to use more than one sense in the process of learning. Not just tactile and kinetics but visual and audio centers of your brain. ;)

1. When you first face the beast, focus on its structure, not the fine tunning details.

What does that mean?

Focus on the footwork, left and right, diagonals, positioning of your body in space and in relation to the other bodies, where you turn, where you walk, where you talk... Don't worry about looking stupid, there is no such thing in a dance studio. It takes time to get through a piece, and the process is not the prettiest thing ever when you look at it from the outside.

2. Look at it.

You have a video? Great! Watch it every day, before you practice or while you chill at the computer. Imagine your body in the place of the dancer on the screen.

3. Write it down.

This will force you to think about the piece some more. It s like imagining your body in the place of the dancer on the video, just more intense and the information is going through more neural pathways which gives you better chance of getting this stuff into your mind and body organically.

4. Try it once, off the top of your head.

Just to see how you feel it and where are you loosing it. This will be useful for the next step, which is...

5. Polishing individual moves or sequences.

Map it, deconstruct it, repeat it, work out the kinks, whatever you need, just DO IT.

6. Video yourself performing while facing a wall.

You are allowed to do this with the music alone, not the music + voice over instructions. Good luck.

7. Take a break every once in a while.
   
   
    It prevents you from going into burn out.

8. Visualise it before you go to sleep.

9. Enjoy the show. :)

She said it better than I would

Someone Else’s Shangri-la