Matt Chung's Site

Tag: dance

  • Journal – Sunday, March 02, 2025

    I’m sick right now.

    Yesterday, my body continued fighting off a cold that started about 6 days ago and throughout yesterday, my body ached, my mind foggy, my chest infected with phlegm.

    Today my mind feels sharper but yesterday, I felt unmotivated, unable to focus and I had (negative) thoughts like “am I being lazy?”. But I returned to the practice of self-compassion, telling myself that it’s normal when we are sick to not want to do much. In contrast to the years and years in which I “forced” my body to do things, when I wasn’t sensitive to listening to it, I rested. Also, it didn’t help that I had not gone to sleep until midnight the night before and had woken up the next morning at 6:30am, sleeping only 6.5 hours and upon reflection, the body likely needs more rest especially when fighting illness. No wonder I was tired throughout the day yesterday and took several naps.

    On Sarah Bidaw’s Judge Demo

    I was watching Juste Debout preliminaries yesterday (shout to my friend’s from Seattle for flying over to Paris and participating in the event).

    Right now, I’m feeling motivated and inspired when watching seasoned dancers. In particular, this demo of Sarah Midaw I find particularly breathtaking. I have not met her but she recently showed up on my Instagram feed and I’ve seen her other friend’s videos; I imagine one day we’ll bump into one another her since the global house dance scene is both big and small. Anyways, what is it about the round I like so much?

    • The clear distinction between sending energy up to energy down during footwork sequence – Didie taught us this concept 2 weeks ago at Juste Debout workshop and his workshop revealed to me what I could see but not comprehend in terms of how dancers send their energy up or down on the kick drum

  • On recovering from plantar fasciitis

    Similar to software debugging, sometimes the best thing you can do is create distance between yourself and the problem you’re troubleshooting. Because more often than not, when we’re in the thick of it, sometimes we can become fixated — fine, a bit obsessed — and prevent ourselves from gaining additional insights, our wheels spinning in place, us unable to make forward progress.

    In those moments, I remind myself to take a break and quite literally step away from the computer.

    As for my right foot pain, I recently being throwing different things at the wall, trying out a variety of exercises and stretches, desperately hoping the pain will disappear soon. However, while reading a ballet blog on resolving plantar fasciitis, it suddenly dawned on me that my pain coincides (6 weeks ago) with the following changes:

    • Wearing 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs) ankle weights on each foot while training
    • Increasing frequency of training – previously only taking (2) two 1.5 hour dance classes a week and then on top of that, had added about (3) 1.5 hour training sessions on adjacent days
    • Introduced new exercises that likely my body was unprepared for – jump roping on one foot, hopping from one leg to another leg (again, while wearing ankle weights)

    It was either in the referenced article or another video that talked about how just a little bit of weight gain can increase odds of plantar fasciitis. While the article was implying body weight gain, I had increased my weight through the use of ankle weights. While wearing them, I often feel my ankles are a bit wobbly, a bit unstable, especially while performing certain movements. So probably poor biomechanics and other foot muscles compensating.

    In short, too much volume, poor technique due to increase (ankle) weight(s), and not enough rest.

    Next Steps?

    • Rest (I find this the hardest of all)
    • Barefoot walking on gravel and pebbles
    • Increasing foot strength by doing calve raises and standing on toes
    • Increasing foot strength by doing eccentric heel drops

    Ultimately, I want to be able to increase my dance training volume since I am seeing huge gains but without an uptick in injuries.

  • Dance Practice Log – December 09, 2024

    When: Monday, December 09, 2024 6:30pm until 8:00pm
    Where: Morden home living room

    Summary

    Yesterday I trained for about 1.5 hours. Up until last couple training sessions, I felt so much resistance, so much procrastination. And every time I get myself to to practice — not force — I feel emotionally better, lifted with higher spirits, and I can see the work paying off. I feel it. I see it.

    What did I do

    • Conditioning
      • Jump roping (3 minutes)
      • 2 rounds of single leg squats, lunge jumps (my enemy), squats, holding dance positions
    • 1 round of 9 exercises with ankle weights
      • Compass on time
      • Compass double time
      • Compass with a swing
      • Jump from side to side
      • Rapid fire forward and backwards
      • Side to side arm stretches (used to make me nauseous but not anymore)
    • 6 rounds of pas de bourrée rhythm training with ankle weights
      • On time, double time, “standard”, 1/16th
    • 6 rounds of cross step rhythm training without ankle weights
      • On time, double time, “standard”, 1/16th
    • Musicality exercise – Used Garage band (no. 16)
    • Freestyle round – started cramping so I stopped after about 3 minute round

    What was the main focus?

    • Musicality and transitions
    • Updated dance training program – added moves such as roger rabbit, jack in the box, side walk, drunk walk, compass, swirl, heel toe, dodger
    • Drilling rhythmic pattern (Mavinga)
    • Main intention continues to be holding the position just a fraction of a second longer, particularly on rhythm 3 before transitioning to 1/16th notes

    Wins

    • Throughout freestyle round, I incorporated (recency bias) the kick, bend, into roger rabbit transition (from Miriam)
    • Setup with the repetition – this is something that I came up for myself; well, I arrived at this move on my own and do not doubt that others in the world have come up with the same move
    • Threw in the shuffle transition I picked up from Miriam from class last Saturday – kick out right, step left leg back behind right, finish the shuffle kick out. I find this transition really beautiful and I’m adding my own flavor, my own sauce to it

    Areas of Improvements

    • Right arm stiff during swirl (and more generally, in all movements)
    • Adding textures
    • Incorporating pauses and quarter time with intention
    • I’m thinking of doing something like Bas Ruten, creating .mp3 files of me just telling myself the exercises with music baked into it

    Full training and practice video

  • Dance practice log – reflection

    Starting a couple weeks ago, I changed the way I approach dance training, particular when training by myself.

    • Sometimes I used the mirror, sometimes I do not – I have mentioned this to some others that the mirror can become a crutch, could end up maladaptive, where we are overly relying on the mirror, which of course is not always available
    • I perform a “warm up” before
    • I’m able to train longer before – my physical endurance has improved. I’m not talking about cardiovascular. I’m talking about my muscles (particularly leg muscles) sustaining longer amount of time dancing. There have been sessions where I wanted to train more but was hitting limits on my physical ability
    • I find it sometimes lack the motivation to start the training – but as soon as begin, I’m locked in … in the zone.
    • I enjoy watching back the footage, often surprised that my creativity lead to something that I consider beautiful
    • I’ve been reviewing my footage with the hopes of using it as input for future dance sessions – whenever I see something (e.g. right arm stiff) that I want to work on, I’d like to write it down and feed the feedback to future dance trainings
    • My body is getting stronger and I’m able to train longer and longer
    • Leg muscles hate the exercise of quickly

    December 04, 2024

    What did I work on?

    What are my areas of growth?

    • Staying on time when performing loose leg with toe tap – Loose leg to toe tap and then was initially struggling to catch the next beginning four count

    December 06, 2024

    What did I work on?

    • Some moves from Jevan’s choreography from this past Thursday

    I started uploading my entire dance trainings onto YouTube (as unlisted, since they are primary for my own eyes).

    Although I keep a dance journal (using Obsidian), it’s not well maintained. I’d like to keep an online dance journal primarily for myself, and secondarily for anyone who finds the act of practicing as enjoyable as performing.

    What are some things that creativity sparked something beautiful?

    • 3 counts of 1/16th cross step with an 8 count pause to the other side
    • Transition from dodger into swirl – totally unexpected and felt awkward but when looking back at the footage, looks quite aesthetic
    • Dodger on one side repeatedly
    • Musicality with pas de bourree with a hop – still struggled with initially translating what I heard into what I was moving
    • For the setup, I cut some piece of it and repeated it, jumping two half circles

    Where are my areas of growth?

    • Right arm a bit stiff when dancing
    • Stiffness in arms asymmetrical when dancing
    • Continue practice holding the count longer, especially for pas de bourree and cross step, the standard groove I tend to rush past
    • When performing head isolation left and right, chin is sometimes too far out, pull back towards center (which looks like the appropriate resting position though it feels like I’m pulling back too far despite the positioning looking more aesthetic and correct)
    • My shoulders are quite stiff, hunched forward
  • Weekly Review – November 25th to December 02

    Weekly Review – November 25th to December 02

    Normally, I conduct my weekly reviews on Sunday, on a weekend where I am less pressed for time, a period of time that I can sit down and reflect. However, I had Elliott this past weekend — at the moment, alternating weekends — and by the end of Sunday evening, at 5:00pm, when her mother picks her up, I’m drained with energy. Long story short: better now than never.

    I remember experiencing joy this past Tuesday, sitting in an office located in central London, my client’s office where I’m currently working as a consultant for the next 3 months. Though my social contact needs are low, I enjoyed not only the technical banter, but discussions on stretching and calisthenics.

    From Friday afternoon to Sunday evening, I had Elliott (video clip below). When I’m with my daughter, there are so many tiny moments where I feel both love and joy. In the little moments, like when I am washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen and she’s sitting in the same area, the two of us talking while she’s coloring in. And I also experience so many micro proud moments, proud of both her and proud of myself. For instance, I taught her how to use the laptop and how to press down “command + P” followed by the “RETURN” key, enabling her to print out her own connect the dot worksheets.

    Another moment I really enjoyed was having lunch with her in Chinatown. Drawing inspiration from another parent, I bought a memory game from Amazon and carry it along with me in my backpack, busting it out when her and I have a moment to ourselves. What was so sweet was that when we got to the restaurant, because we go there about every weekend when I have her, the employees already know our order (i.e. chicken chow mein, dim sum platter, pork bao). What’s more is that another employee stopped by our table and played the memory game with us, despite Elliott being unsure with what they were doing since the older woman spoke with broken English.

    On Sunday evening, after Elliott left, I danced and trained (video clip below). One primary intention that I had set prior to performing the dance specific exercises was holding certain positions longer. There’s this tendency I have to move to the next beat before the current beat fully finishes, and as such, people have told me (numerous of times, number of people) that I am “rushing”. They’re not wrong. So during this instance of the exercise, particularly on the “third” rhythm, I held the final foot positioning for a fraction of second longer and looking back at the footage, just that extra moment in time makes the movement and transition much more clear.

  • Gold nuggets on developing self confidence

    Developing confidence is an area that I naturally find myself gravitating towards. I find the whole topic fascinating and ironic because I feel confident in some areas in my life while feeling insecure in others.

    What’s up with that?

    Confidence: A non transferable skill and domain specific

    I recently finished a book titled “Mastery: The first rule of mastery: Stop worrying about what other people think” and currently working through (a library rented copy of) “How Confidence Works” by Ian Robertson. In “How Confidence Works”, Ian Robertson states that confidence is domain specific and that confidence itself is NOT transferable.

    In other words, just because you are confident in area A (e.g. dance) does not mean you are inherently confident in area B (e.g. public speaking). While it can be a trait, self-confidence has more to do with competence within a specific domain.

    For instance, you can be the most confident dancer, able to effortless dance in front of a large audience, and then feel absolutely unsure and insecure and terrified when it comes to dating! It follows that building confidence is a skill that is transferable across domains (more on this below — see Gold Nuggets below)

    All all that brings me to “paradox of rising expectations.”

    In a nutshell, when it comes to setting goals, an individual’s goal post continues to move. That is, what often happen is that once we reach out goal(s), here’s a natural tendency to set another (typically more ambitious) goal. It’s a recursive, infinite loop: set goal, achieve goal, set goal, achieve goal.

    Gold nuggets extracted from conversation with Jo-L

    I followed up with Jo-L over Instagram, sending him a few voice messages, asking him a few follow up questions. Here are some pearls of wisdom I extracted from the conversation:

    • “Confidence is a product of the effort ….”
    • “I’m not talking about the outcome…the outcome is a completely different story … I am putting myself in this position and I am trying. And that means no matter the outcome, I can try again. And I can go again. I am gaining confidence in the fact that I am putting myself in this position. And this is something that is transferable.”
    • “If I’m capable of putting myself here — of trying this out — I am capable of trying something new out. If I am capable of mastering this … then I have the capacity to master something else.”
    • “You’re not mastering the craft. You’re mastering yourself WITHIN the craft”
    • “Every single time you master yourself within the craft, you’re also learning a lot about yourself that’s going to be useful in the pursuit of mastering yourself within another craft.”
  • Photography patience

    Photography patience

    I was gifted a Canon DSLR when I was about 16. I remember being so eager to take “beautiful photos”. I remember purchasing a couple DVDs, my hope then was that after an hour or two I could begin taking photos that were similar to the ones that I admired. But quickly I found out that after setting the mode to manual, the photos were overexposed, blurry — not at all what I had envisioned. Shortly after, I gave up and more or less never really picked the camera back up, my frustration getting the best of me.

    Fast forward to today, 20 years plus later, I’m resetting my expectations and my relationship with the craft of photography and mindset has changed. I actually don’t think I’ll capture “good” photos for many years to come. I’m a beginner and there’s going to be a phase of years where I have good taste, but lack the technique:

    I recognize there’s so much to learn. As of now, I’m hearing the following phrases pop up a lot. I’m watching YouTube videos (had signed up for a course that unfortunately was cancelled the day before it started):

    • Composition
    • Aperture
    • F-Stop
    • Exposure
    • ISO
    • White balance

    This is at the very tip of the iceberg. I’m certain there is a voluminous amount of knowledge for me to acquire.

    Also, at 36, I’m recognizing that so much of how I want to spend my days is more or less interests I’ve had since I was a young boy. For example, dance. I love dancing when I was about 10 or 11 and 25 years later, here I am, honing the craft, taking two dance classes a week, practicing on evenings when I’m alone and don’t have my daughter to look after.

    Anyways, I digress.

    Ultimately, through photography and other mediums (including video) I want to continue story telling.

  • Conveying one’s dance musicality ability with gestures

    Like many others, I watch and study lots of house dance videos. I’m still very much a beginner when it comes to the craft — at the time of this writing, about 14 months into the journey — however I’m noticing an increased ability within myself to tease out what highly skilled dancers are trying to convey in their rounds. Because I recently started training privately with Mavinga, I’m leveraging the opportunity by attempting to analyzing her videos and then coming up with questions that I can ask her since it’s rare and a wonderful opportunity to sit with the person and have them articulate what they were doing in a particular round. In particular, I like the below video (hopefully YouTube skips to the specific time frame I embedded in the URL) where Mavinga catches a particular phrase in the music and then (I think) signals to the battle opponent that he missed an opportunity to play with musicality or perhaps she’s trying to convey something along the lines of “Did you hear that? Maybe not.” It’s playful.

  • Participating in London’s From.The.Club battle: Reflection