Dancing Habits.

No one can say that I’m not open to try new things: last week I took my first ever Popping, Hip hop, Locking, House, Contemporary dance AND Ballet classes. Quite an achievement for one week isn’t it! I also went to couple of Fustra classes to find those tiny core muscles so important in dancing. Ouch, says my body and no wonder it does so: in addition to all the dance classes I had four Zouk practices (thanks Gaga, Michaelo, Carlos, N Girl and Big O. for those!) and finally Zouk practica on Sunday. Not mentioning Tuesday night in Havanna. As a balance, this week my dancing will be reduced almost to zero since I’m going to be out of town for most of the week, so I wouldn’t be expecting new postings about dancing for a while.

I have to tell you about this cute dance studio I went and fell in love with,Tamara Rasmussen dance school in Cable Factory. The school's main teacher is such a lovely person! The first thing she did was memorizing my name and making sure I feel welcomed and comfortable. Even though it seems that she is absorbed into her teaching, she is constantly observing all the students. Many times she came to me, pushed here and there to correct my stance or movements and didn't forget to encourage. "Yes Riikka, that's it! Very well done!". All classes started with simply walking around the classroom, but to walk correctly can be harder than you think. Feel all weight on my foot, push from the back foot, concentrate to the hip, find the balance, be ready, relax and breathe free, I kept repeating to myself. In the end of the class she turned to us, smiled warm and said: "it was such a nice class today, thank you all for making it so pleasant!"

What I liked most about last week was that trying totally new things made me realize some dancing habits I have especially in Zouk. You know, some of those things you just always make, maybe even without noticing. The problem can be that you don’t know what else to do so you just stick with the old and safe things. Or maybe your muscle memory is just stronger than your will; we all know how irritating that can be! Inspired by the new dance styles I tried to get something from them and put them into my Zouk dancing. Right, maybe many of them didn’t work but throwing my dance habits away for a while was quite relaxing and fun. I should make a habit out of challenging my habits!

Do you have any dancing habits?

The Perfect Me.

When I was finishing my previous posting on Monday I felt inconsistent: I wrote most of the post before Sunday and after that my mood had changed dramatically. Why am I writing about lack of inspiration when my heart is still bouncing from the previous night’s dancing?

Its funny how one event, even a small one, can change you. I encountered my turning point in the dance floor and it changed me from the boring and uninspired ordinary-me to cheerful and eager special-me, back to myself. But why it was this very Sunday that made this transition; after all I spend hours in the dance floor every week. Well, maybe this time I realized that the person holding me wanted to dance especially with me, no one else. I was special, precious, inspiring. And you know what: being special doesn’t mean being the best, having the perfect technique or the most outstanding styling. Being special is making the dance special for both involved, and to be able to do this you must undress your defenses and reveal the real you. It is natural to compare yourself to others, and with comparison you will always find someone better than you. But it’s not about being better. No one can be better you than you yourself. Sometimes you just need someone to remind you that you are special, that you are the perfect you.

Being myself is so much more fun. Even if I feel ridiculous doing some totally new dance style I come out from the class with a huge smile on my face. Even if I’ve had horrible and exhausting day at work I feel super energetic going to dancing right after. Even if stay out late dancing and barely wake up the next morning, I automatically collect my dance gear to my back and head half-sleep to office without questioning if I had energy to go dancing that afternoon. And when I hit the dance floor I have a blast.

It feels absurd how could have I forgotten how much fun dancing is. Remember when I used to go dancing to Havanna every single Tuesday? Even though I still remember how dead-tired I used to be every single Wednesday morning I obviously had forgotten why I still always went home too late those Tuesday nights; simply because I had so much fun I couldn’t leave. Last Tuesday's Bachata evening was like going back in time and made me wonder: why did I ever stop going there? One highlight of the evening was a sort of a reunion with one leader I haven’t been dancing with in ages. Yup, the connection is still there, a strong as it used to be. Damn, why did we ever stop dancing!

My new dance styles trial continues this week with dance school Saiffa’s free classes on Popping, Hip Hop, House and Locking, maybe even some Break. A small warning for those who plan to do the same though: the classes are super full of enthusiastic dancers!

Inspiration, Where Did You Go?

It has been obvious that I haven’t been quite myself lately. Mostly dancing is a territory that I can still remain myself during periods like these but this time I haven’t been able to be myself even in the dance floor. Many say that one of my biggest strengths in dancing is that I can easily through myself into the dance, get lost, go crazy, forget everything else, and losing that strength makes dancing somehow uninspiring. It feels that I have nothing to give and that dancing has nothing to give to me.

I appreciate friends who know me well enough to see these things in a glimpse and aren’t afraid to say things right to my face. Michaelo said it well: I have become ordinary; I have lost that something that makes me special. I have lost that spark of life that makes my eyes shine and heart jump, and there is only one person who can turn this change to better. So I stopped to look around. I don’t want to live an ordinary life; I don’t want to settle to conveniences. I need drama, rollercoasters, big feelings, action.

I can say that I have truly tried to find my dancing inspiration the last couple of weeks and most of my attempts have been more or less unsuccessful. A good start for my search, though, was a free dancing practice to random music with Michaelo week ago on Sunday: at least I felt more like myself in the Zouk practica after our practice. Last week I took advantage from DCA’s open doors week and I stepped out of my comfort zone with different dancing classes (btw, this week they are having open doors week in Saiffa if you're interested of street dances). Some of them, especially Voguing classes, did make me feel excited to learn more and try new things, but some classes made me simply feel like I didn’t belong there at all. Looking at the young girls at the dance school made me ask myself why, oh why didn’t I start dancing ten years ago! I also realized once again that something I really want to learn is competition dance technique. That’s what I started with and that’s what I have been secretly missing all the time. Oh, one cool event I went was short dances in this old city owned building, Hietaniemen paviljonki, that might be pulled down in which some dancers organized dance event to demonstrate this act. Nothing special dance inspiration-wise but a nice cheer-up anyway.

Maybe it is just so that life goes in periods. You can’t be super passionate and excited about one specific thing all the time, even if it’s dancing. Maybe it’s because of my budding trip that makes me feel somehow unconnected with everything. This whole month has been kind of a transition period from my old life to new, and it feels hard to take hold from neither of them. I still have dozens of things to do before my departure and I just can’t move myself to get them done. But hey, I still have three weeks, right?

One thing that I managed to cross out from my to-do-list was checking out the Zouk classes I wanted to take in Brisbane, and you can’t believe my luck: Kadu and Larissa are going to go to their three month European tour just when I arrive to Australia! I mean, come on!! The one time that I actually live where my first Zouk idols teach they happen to come here. What have I done to deserve this tragedy? Okay, the good thing is that apparently they have taught their students well and that the scene should be pretty good in Brisbane. And well, I’ll just take their classes when they are back (but this still sucks badly!).

Going back to the dance inspiration topic, I just have to tell you something that happened yesterday. Something that I haven’t been experiencing for a too long time; something that gives you a never ending pool of inspiration and passion; something that makes you lose your sense of time and space; something I have been searching these weeks but never thought it would come out this intense. After a long long break from dancing in Havanna, must be over six months or so, I stepped there for a Kizomba evening and, suddenly, unexpectedly I went to a dancing heaven. Hours of constant pure pleasure in the dance floor. Every single move made me want more. This is why I dance, these magical moments.

So, ultimately, I did it, I found it and found myself, even if just for a one night.

New Year, New Dance.

Every New Year I make three New Year’s promises. Last year I promised to find a dance that feels my own and that’s what I did. If I think of my dance year 2012 Zouk was definitely the dance I danced the most, got most enjoyment from and in which I improved the most. One of my promises for this year was that I’m going to learn a whole new dance. I don’t know yet what dance this will be but it must be something new and different; a way to challenge myself to find new perspectives to my dancing.

In the end of a year it feels natural to go back to the year passed and think through what has been happening in life lately. This time the end of the year feels even more like an end of some period in my life because of the big changes in my everyday life. If you go back in my blog to see what I did one year ago in the turn of the year, I was just starting to dance Zouk and was shocked to see the first video of my dancing. Since that I have been videotaping my dancing almost every week to find things to correct and improve. I also had just finished dancing in Spex and was feeling confused for not dancing every single day. But the biggest thing dance-wise one year ago was that I was having a big battle finding a balance with my dancing life. Dancing had become too dominant force and I needed to take back the control. I could say that now dancing isn’t spinning me around but that I let it to put me into spinning when I so want. One year ago my life seemed totally empty without dancing; now dancing makes my life much richer and more beautiful but I find happiness and excitement from other things too.

A more intensive dance period before the holidays was a good choice: no dancing for 13 days now. This might sound a bit contradictory to what I just said, but today I started to fill up my calendar with dance practices to compensate this break. However, having a balance doesn’t mean that I couldn’t spend much time dancing. By the way, beginning of spring and fall are good opportunities to find some low-priced or even free dance classes when many dance schools are having open doors weeks or introductory offers. I found at least these options for the coming days: DCA’s open doors week 7.-13.1. (free admission to all classes that has availability), SalsaStudio’s introduction week 7.-13.1. (all classes 5 €), StepUp’s open doors 6.1. (free classes all day), Etnofitnes’ super Saturday 12.1. (9 €/1 class, 12 €/2 classes, 18 € /3 classes, 22 €/4 classes). Also Unisport organizes introduction classes to most of their dance courses on January. All in all, January is a good timing to try something new! I’m more than happy to explore different dance styles so let me know if you know any more open door events.

Yay, busy dancing weeks coming up!