Rethinking Again

Before I get started, let me give you my thoughts on East Coast Swing. I love the music because it is upbeat and high energy. I wish I could say the same thing about the dance. I’d love to be able to do better but it escapes me. I think everyone has a dance or two that just aren’t going to be their strongest and Swing is my Kryptonite. Something about the triples and trying to do them with the proper movement and up to speed that always make me feel clumsy and clunky when dancing.

On the whole, I greatly prefer West Coast Swing.

Anyway, for a variety of reason, I was asked to do a demonstration at the party last night. Of all the dances that I do, I ended up picking the Swing because it is my nemesis and why not do what makes you the most uncomfortable.

The guy doing the music made the mistake of asking why I selected the Swing. Since my humor runs towards sarcasm and my mind works pretty fast, I just pointed at PJ and said something like “she’s making me do it”. PJ decided to set the record straight since I was, in fact, the one who selected the dance but “she made me do it” just sounded funnier. So now many know that I consider Swing one of my problem dances.

As fate would have it, we did a pretty good job. It was smoother than I expected and generally well received. Had someone come up and call BS on me for stating it was one of my weaker dances. Like they weren’t really going to believe me.

Its a common problem for me. How something feels to me while I’m doing it often doesn’t seem to correlate with how it looks to others.

Actually, its a bit more complicated than that. I’ve got this need for validation but then I can never really internalize what I’m hearing. And, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else says if you can’t believe in your own abilities.

This is not a new thing for me. But I see the value in the statement above and I think it is an attitude to embrace. Use the comments from others as markers to know that the dance journey is still moving forward. It isn’t about trying to prove that I’m a great dancer. It is just about always trying to get better and if people like what you are doing, then you are getting better.

This is not yet a fully developed thought or something that can be easily implemented. But it is the mindset I’d like to move towards.

Perhaps not to what is shown below. The hold your head up and be fabulous I can relate to. Anyway, just some rambling on a Friday. I’ll go away now.