April 13, 2020
Nearly 10 years after moving to Greenville, South Carolina, a dream has finally come to fruition. Of course, it just so happens to be during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic which also requires all non-essential businesses to cease operations. Our society’s new hashtags include “Social Distancing” and “Flattening the Curve” — a foreign concept to the partner and ballroom dancing world. Yet, I am oddly calm during this time. Thankful, for the solitude — aside from my puppy — and using this time to reflect. (I’m also furiously cleaning and organizing papers, junk mail, and purging unnecessary items from my home — all in sweatpants.)
It is my hope that everyone is able to take some time to themselves and work on individual goals. While we believe that partner dances require a partner (I know, Master of the Obvious here. Just hold your horses…) dancing also requires each participant to be self-aware. A more common word used today is “mindful”. These all surround the same concept of accepting where you are today in your journey, and acknowledging where you are whether it be mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual. All too often, we are looking steps ahead in our dancing to how to dance with a partner. Instead, we should go back to the individual. How is my balance? How is my awareness of space? How can I know without looking in a mirror that my arm or leg is exactly where I need it to be? When I step forward, can I feel which part of my foot is making contact?
I didn’t understand this concept of acceptance until I was in early morning yoga, on a beach, at a women’s retreat, hating life and the tightness in my hamstrings while yoga instructor, Cristina Andrade, told us to take note of our bodies. “Are they tighter than they were yesterday?” she asked. “Maybe there’s just a little more stress [in your hamstrings] today than there was yesterday. Accept where your body is today, and be thankful…” she said calmly. “Be thankful?!” I thought. Then, I realized how ungrateful I was toward my own body, for how it aged and lost flexibility, for how it was not able to do things it once was… but, that it was OK. I can’t compare myself to what I once was, but I can accept my injuries as knowledge and experience gained. I can be thankful for the movement I am still capable of performing; and, I can be thankful for the new patterns I am able to eventually learn. So, be forgiving and accepting of your body and its limitations, but also be thankful for the capabilities you still have.
This is a concept I believe is often overlooked in partner dancing. The idea of two people dancing together is not because we need a partner to complete a picture. Rather, it is because two people working together can create a more dynamic work of art. It is my hope that during this time, you find the time and inspiration to focus on yourself. To take the time and embrace the quiet, the stillness, and the miracle that is your body. Accept all its limitations as they are today as experiences that brought you here — to now. Then, choose one small thing you’d like to teach your body to perform. With small goals, we can move mountains.
There is a popular teamwork quote that I like to refer to when it comes to partner dancing:
A single draft horse can pull a load up to 8,000 lbs. Two draft horses pulling together can pull three times as much weight. Working together, two draft horses can pull 24,000 lbs.
Dancing with a partner should be the same — we should be able to create exponential movement in our teamwork, but, it starts with us as an individual first.
STUDIO C 