Today, I had a 1:1 dance private with Francesa Miles and while the initial agenda she had initially stitched together had us focusing on use of space — which we did go over — the dance lesson took an unexpected turn and I learned that some of the recent critique I’ve been receiving around my transitions (from one concept to another, or from one movement to another) stems from avoiding the discomfort of boredom. In addition to this realization, I also learned the power of creating mini games that serve both as a constraint and as a fun objective that also ends up manifesting some desirable movement qualities.
Main takeaways
When thinking about engaging the chest and torso, consider engaging the back of the torso, the shoulder blades, an area often overlooked
Create little objectives, games that can spark or motivate certain movement qualities
Experiment with permitting myself to experience the feeling of boredom at least a couple times before transitioning from one movement or concept, to the next
Follow up
Double time a step and accent every third step
Double time consists of 16 counts and with a movement (e.g. pas de bourree) that consist of 3 steps, we can perform the movement 5 times and gives us one (half note) count before we return back on the “1”
Tuesday training has been more or less running consistently every Tuesday for about 6 months now. Apart from the time period in which I was visiting the states, I’ve hosted this weekly session.
And yesterday, I considered cancelling the session on the morning of, considered refunding everyone their 4.00 GBP because my right foot developed a blister that caused me to wince even when applying the slightest amount of pressure or weight.
Although I have no doubts people would’ve totally understood and extended compassion had I cancelled the session, I feel a certain responsibility to keep the training running and at the same time, it’s a part of the day that I very much look forward to for multiple reasons.
Trying to explore other options instead of cancelling, I momentarily considered designating someone else — perhaps Aubrey — could run the session. But in the end, I made the choice and committed and satisfied with the decision.
Yesterday’s agenda
Warm up (shake it out) – a limbering exercise that I’ve come to love and I draw inspiration from Francesa Miles, who showed me this same exercise during our 1:1. Gives me the opportunity to, at least once a week, identify tension my body holds and to release it.
Foundation latter and repetition exercise – there’s 6 foundation steps/moves and we start with the first one, performing it for (2) 8 counts. At the end of that sequence, we tack on the second foundation for an additional (2) 8 counts, then “move back down the latter” and repeat the first foundation. We continue to stack additional moves at the end of every sequence and constantly move back up and down the latter.
A (light) circuit – jumping jacks, lunges (for them hip flexors), partner planks, skate jumps, burpees
Rhythm exercise #1 – we form a big large circle and each person takes a turn clapping a rhythm (for 8 counts, though we normally 4 counts) and then the rest of the crew dances and matches that rhythmic pattern
Rhythm exercise #2 – formed groups of 3 and each person would take a turn dancing an 8-count rhythm, repeated twice, and then the rest of the observers would guess the rhythm
Combo exercise – each person comes up with a (1) 8-count combo and then would freestyle in front of the group for about 40 seconds and during that time, inject their combo into their freestyle with objective to get other people to correctly guess their combo
Exchange in small groups – in spirit of increasing the amount of time for people to dance, instead of a single large cypher (sometimes we still do this, when the group is small enough like 4-5), we formed 3-4 circles with 3-4 people each
On clapping for 8 counts instead of 4
Intention setting
At the beginning of every session, I ask every person attending what their intention is for joining, why they are here today, and what they might want to get out of the session. Like other previous sessions, there tends to me shared objectives and yesterday was no exception:
Simplicity
Turning inwards
Breaking out of default patterns
More expansive
Extension
Practice taking risks
On breaking out of default patterns
I no longer view the behavior of falling back to “default patterns” — movements that we often see people repeat in their freestyle dance — as something wrong or pathological. In my opinion, the repeated movement patterns form part of our identity. Secondarily, from a compassionate point of view, I think our patterns provide a safety mechanism, a sense of competency. Nothing wrong with that. At the same time, this implies that freeing ourselves from these default movements adds some discomfort. As such, for me, there’s a small desire to feel feelings of discomfort since that may serve as an indicator of growth.
Evaluation of my own rounds
I’m becoming less and less surprised with the fact that often, I’ll feel or think a round of mine isn’t “good” but when watching back, I’m quite pleased with what I see (of course, the inverse is true sometimes as well, where, in the moment I think it feels good yet when looking back, I cringe).
Round 2
It’s apparent to me that something is working or a combination of somethings are working: from a compositional perspective, elements of my composition have improved, most notably turns and (my desire) misdirection. These qualities are most evident in this round where, somewhat intentionally, I would deliberately disrupt the flow when performing a turn in order to redirect the turn in the opposite direction.
When watching back the video, I giggled when others playfully laughed when I performed my combo (from the previous exercise) since I had more or less, very not subtly, cued everyone that my combo was about to be injected by me clapping.
Decided to focus on Physical Qualities, expanding variety and vocabulary, by directing my attention to one move: salsa step. When I’m practicing, often so many thoughts tend to distract me and what I found particularly useful was leveraging the mirrors hanging up on the wall and with the erasable marker, writing down both
1) what I want to work on and
2) what I am actually working on.
Although I sometimes stick to the former, I often will relegate control and follow what comes up organically.
What got practiced
Direction changes with the salsa step, turning both left and right – reminded of Kev’s comment from last week, about working on one’s weaknesses
Double time of salsa step
Observations
Looping double time transitioned me into a flow state, albeit how short
Established two “checkpoints” when performing the double time of the salsa step – on the “and” of the three, I initiate the salsa step on the opposite side (i.e. if started on the right, then we now step on the left) and on the “6” I begin terminating the sequence on the same side
Practicing the sequence (double time) at half-speed proved to be helpful – the memory of Rommel sharing (during the battling workshop that took place a couple weeks ago) that he regrets not spending more time practicing moves at half-speed lingered in my mind
Felt confident breaking away from prescriptions of how double time “should be” done – On the last count of an 8-count, I deliberately did not step on the “and” of “8” and instead ended on “8”
Maintaining a groove (hip swaying), while difficult, helped keep me on time when performing double time
Summary
Last night, I experienced (yet again) flow state: not too difficult, not too easy. Initially, double time for salsa step was frustrating, to the point of overwhelm. Aware of my tendencies to rush through this difficulty, I slowed down and was able to oscillate between a variety of speeds, slow and fast.
On Friday evening, August 22, I last minute minute to sign up for a workshop hosted by Alba and Princess, the workshop centered on freestyle dance: freestyle development, introspection, and connection. I was motivated to attend the workshop for a couple reasons. First, I simply wanted to dance, to move my body — not train — but just connect with myself. And having been to their previous workshop, felt the workshop’s environment would be a great atmosphere for turning inwards. Second, I consider myself an active member of the London freestyle house dance community and when I see other members of the community — Alba in this case — I want to show up and support them.
Now, like any 3 hour workshop, there are a myriad of lessons we were taught and I want to enumerate a few exercises that resonated with me, ones that I’ll likely incorporate into my own dance practice
A few exercises to takeaway
The eyes track what body part you are moving
Strike a pose and keep your arms in a fixed position while other parts of the body (e.g. torso, legs) move around those arms
Set intention with the eyes
During a round, breathe through the nose, then through the mouth, then hold the breathe
Of the three, I would say that the most profound impact was the third exercise: setting intention with the eyes. Presently, I’m recognizing (and I’ve also been told in my feedback) that when dancing, often I am concentrating so intently that I end up (not intentionally, but as a byproduct of focus) hold tension in my upper body and my neck. And while I am lately directly releasing tension by actively relaxing, by adding a bounce, I also noticed that by simply intentionally directing my gaze on some part of the room (e.g. ceiling light, door knob, hinge on the door) that when I end up performing a turn, there’s much less tension being held in my body, including my neck.
Coming in a close second is the strike a pose and maintaining a fixed point with the arms. This was the first time I’ve both heard of this exercise and attempted it and believe that I can probably apply this concept into my own freestyle rounds and as a constraint, the exercise can actually help unlock some creativity as well.
Finally, Alba had shared an exercise less focused on composition and more on increasing one’s awareness of their breathe. During this particular exercise, we were prompted to dance and then she would cue us to either 1) breathe only through our nose 2) inhale through nose but exhale via the mouth 3) hold the breathe. I noticed in both my movement and noticed while observing others that, when we start off breathing through the nose and transition to exhaling through the mouth, the movements become more elongated. And another observation is that I likely sometimes hold my breathe because it became obvious that when holding tension, the quality of the movements become more staccato, more jerky.
Summary
The overarching theme of the workshop was what I would consider the double “C”: choice and commitment. For all the exercises (ones listed above and even the ones I didn’t share) revolve around these concepts. The two are essential ingredients, in my opinion. Sometimes, I myself make a move in my freestyle dance but it’s often not conscious choice. And as far as commitment of that choice, I think it influences perceived conviction — confidence — communicating that although you may not know where the movement choice may lead you, you’re confident enough to commit.
Last night, I practiced at home for about 45-50 minutes, from the comfort of my own living room. I approached the solo practice session with some grace, my body still sore from the Tuesday’s Training session as well as the hip-hop class (my second one, from John Graham). Despite the muscle soreness, I was able to move my body and the intentions I set out last night were to practice the following:
Alternate rhythm for pas de bourree – over the past (3) private dance lessons I’ve taken with Francesa, we’ve been practicing switching between the kick and snare. One way to transition is by applying a “1+2+3” rhythmic pattern. So on top of throwing this (pas de bourree) rhythmic pattern in my round, I also wanted to incorporate an additional pattern “1+2+3+4”, followed by a drag and sweep movement. I would say that for these three “chunks”, I’m now in the skill execution phase and would like to practice deliberately injecting them into my freestyle rounds
Double time rhythm (on beat) transition to “On Time” – I’ve struggled with dancing double time because I had found it challenging to maintaining a bounce, my internal metronome. But it appears that the act of practicing (despite not immediately getting the movement) has someone reduced the difficulty of the exercise
The train movement – I really love the aesthetic (and sort of the sensation/feeling in my body) when executed by others and only up until recently do I feel my body (more specifically: my hips) can handle the load and so now I am practicing injecting the train into my freestyle rounds
In addition to practicing each of the individual tasks above, I am taking Jo-L’s advice and attempting to “chunk” them together. That is, when I’m able to (without errors) consistently perform the “chunk”, I then try execute a subsequent chunk and build a string of chunks together. In addition to stitching chunks together, he had also suggested that when errors or faults show up, to pause in the moment, instead of continuing executing the move. The reason being that we may unintentionally repeating those faults.
I attended a house dance workshop lead by Samantha Mavinga. The workshop took place in London last Sunday on May 25th and ran for 3 hours and though I’ve attended other workshops in the past, this one felt particularly special:
Trained with Mavinga previously in 1:1 and so I’m familiar with her work
I DJ’d for the self-exporation and cypher portion of the workshop
I created a recap video using my DSLR
Exercises revolving around the “Shuffle” movement
We started the workshop with a breathing exercise, and was asked to envision (while our eyes were closed) of our safe space. Following this tapping in exercise, she revealed that we’d be focusing on a single move throughout the entire workshop: the shuffle.
I love the fact that we focused on a single foundation move because she’s providing us with a template that can be further applied to other foundational moves. It’s like teaching us how to fish.
Controlling and strengthening feet required – an exercise she had taught me during our 1:1 privates. Good refresher and reminder.
Rhythm patterns – simple, syncopated, double time, 1/16th notes. I was familiar with this and actually had practiced this rhythmic pattern not only with other foundation moves (e.g. pas de bourree, cross step) but also had practiced it a bit with shuffle as well
Repeating the movement on the same side (instead of switching from left to right or vice versa) – I really like this technique
Combining shuffle with roger rabbit – though she combined the shuffle with roger rabbit, taking components from each one, I imagine so many opportunities where I can combine shuffle with other moves like pas de bourree and cross step
Leveraging control and strengthening to stretch out and slow down the shuffle
Moving up and down across the four levels – I really struggle with transitioning from level 3 (the penultimate level) and level 4, on the ground.
Taking up space by traveling with the movement – I got some nice feedback from her that I was prematurely kicking out (i.e. initiating the shuffle) the non jumping leg
Transition between Peter Paul on left side to right side – lovely move and transition and feels unnatural to me and will require lots of practice in a slower tempo
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
Tomorrow, I compete as a dancer in the infamous international street style dance competition — Juste Debout — and for the past 1 month, my 2 vs 2 partner (Aubrey) and I been consistently training together. Every week her and carved out 1.5 hours, time spent in a studio practicing. And now, all this comes to a crescendo in about 24 hours, when we take the stage in London and dance for a grand total of 60 seconds.
This past month has been quite a journey. High highs. Low lows.
And along the way, I felt a bit stuck with my dance, hitting an invisible plateau. Despite moving my body more, I ironically felt more disconnected with my dance, I felt a bit more performative, a bit more robotic.
Thankfully, I rode out this anxiety and frustration and ultimately, the universe had my back. During this period of disconnection with myself, I happened to have one off dance private with Jevan. And during our 60 minute lesson, he fundamentally shifted the way I approach my dance. Up until that point, my focus and intention was, in this order:
1) Demonstrate I can dance the fundamental and foundational moves in this style we call house dance and
2) Sprinkle some of my own personality into the movement.
However, he had me invert the two, prioritizing dance first and that unlocked something in me and I’m now back to enjoying dance a bit more. My dance rounds — when looking back at the footage — have much more of me in it. There’s more clarity. More conviction.
But I digress.
Over the past month, I documented our training journey and below are four short clips of each week.
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
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)
