Tag: london

  • Soul Sync Workshop & Jam

    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.

  • London House Dance Workshop Summary

    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.

    1. Controlling and strengthening feet required – an exercise she had taught me during our 1:1 privates. Good refresher and reminder.
    2. 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
    3. Repeating the movement on the same side (instead of switching from left to right or vice versa) – I really like this technique
    4. 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
    5. Leveraging control and strengthening to stretch out and slow down the shuffle
    6. 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.
    7. 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
    8. 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

  • On experiencing joy and love when watching my own recap videos

    On the days I don’t see Elliott (my beautiful 5 year old daughter), I often find myself (re)watching recap videos of us on my iPhone, short little clips that I stitch together to capture a moment in time, a snapshot aimed to honor our relationship (as well as share with some friends and family).

    Right now, I’m sitting at a café located near her school; I’m working remotely and just sent off a proposal for a 3 month engagement, now getting ready to grab a bite to eat before walking over to school to pick her up. And while watching the video below, I sensed a wave of calm and love and joy, these emotions washing over me.

    In this video clip, she’s sitting on my lap as I feed her pasta that I had picked up from M&S, the two of us singing along to Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” performance that’s taking place on Tiny Desk.

  • Created my first YouTube playlist for House Dance Class Recap videos

    Created my first YouTube playlist for House Dance Class Recap videos

    Creating YouTube Playlist on my channel serves multiple purposes. First, doing so in a way for me to practice my organization skills. Second, a playlist enables me to chronologically view my dance journey. Third, playlists help viewers (subscribers and non-subscribers) paint a better picture of what dance classes in studios look and feel like.

    Now, I do have a backlog of edited house dance recap videos that live on my iPhone and Instagram (stories), not yet uploaded to YouTube. How many? If I had to guess, probably in the range of 50 videos or so. Will I upload all of them? Although I’d like to, probably not. Perhaps a select few.

    What other playlists will I want to create? Off the cuff, here are a few ideas

    • Stretching and flexibility journey – I started stretching on May 16, 2024 (162 days ago) and similar to my dance, I’ve been documenting my flexibility journey
    • Daughter and dad recap videos – Whenever I watch videos of Elliott and me, I feel joy and love. It’s yet another way to remind myself that I am living a life that’s both worth living and living a live that’s aligned with my long term values