Gentle Chaos. (Science, Dance, & My Lived Experience)

Hi folks!

Blog-RJ here again. I think I'd figured something out today? It’s jumbled in my brain, but alas I’ll share anyway. I think… I need to combine my experience in tech with my journey in dance. Not even my experience in the tech industry, though. Like… my SCIENCE experience. Like the academic life I had BEFORE tech. Lemme explain.

PC: @andvalan

I am science-brained. DO NOT CLICK AWAY RIGHT NOW, but check out my linkedin for the time before I was at Microsoft. Yeah, all that. I love a good process, I love a good explanation. If you’ve been around me at all, you know I love to talk about why things work, why people do what they do, and how WE (or I) should do what we do. I love a process! I’ve been thinking a lot about myself as a dance teacher, and what the hell I have to offer. I think this is it.

Frou-frou fluffy stuff is… actually really important. There’s science to back it (check out some of Eric Franklin’s work & specifically his concept of ideokinesis). I do not… embody that kind of stuff, YET. This kind of stuff a lot of dancers and dance teachers in the Seattle area do REALLY well, and have been doing for YEARS. I think what I can offer is… kinda what I just did - a link to the study. I feel like my most valuable asset right now as a dancer and dance instructor is to offer that link (a literal link) to deeper understanding, and a discussion around an optimized and tested approach. Can I teach frou-frou stuff? Sure… but those seeds have only recently been planted in me, and as much as I might understand it at a cognitive level… I don’t have the second-nature embodiment of these concept yet… and that’s okay! Slow & steady wins the race!!!

I was listening to this podcast in the car today, and this is what prompted me to bring my blog-thing back from the dead. I want all of my students & peers to listen to this podcast. It’s a science-based explanation of WHY performing is so difficult - why we mess up in class, why it’s difficult to dance in front of the camera, why it’s difficult to dance when your instructor has you focusing on a specific movement-skill. Dancers are SO hard on themselves, to an unreasonable extent. I wish I could crawl inside of all my students’ heads and rip out the part of their brains that expect them to be perfect at anything TODAY. Just get the reps in y’all! Your brain is learning lot of things!!!

Anyway, expect more of these. I listen to a lot of this kinda stuff, and I love talking about how it all applies to dance, and about how being BAD is a step towards being “good” (i hate that word ahahahahaha).

I hope you’re all having a lovely day. I was gonna talk more about my lived experiences and how they relate to dance… but this post feels done. I guess that’s the gentle chaos part. idk.

xoxo,

RJ