Bonjour; salut!
Aujourd’hui nous inaugurons une nouvelle rubrique.
Depuis le début de notre carrière de danseurs Swing (2009…) l’une des choses qui nous a le plus enthousiasmés a été la possibilité de rencontrer de nouvelles personnes, avec des expériences, des visions et des cultures très différentes des nôtres !
Tout cela nous a donné l’opportunité de mûrir et d’évoluer à la fois en tant que danseurs et en tant que personnes.
C’est pourquoi je me suis dit que ça pourrait être intéressant pour vous aussi, de pouvoir lire ce que les autres ont à dire. Des gens qui habitent peut-être loin, ou qu’on n’a jamais eu la chance de rencontrer…
Dans tous les cas…
Je m’engage à rechercher ceux qui veulent partager leurs réflexions et à vous en faire part !
Commençons par une chère amie originaire de Nijmegen avec qui nous avons partagé de nombreuses aventures et expériences de ces dernières années.
Vous voilà Eveline
I would like you to dance for you, enjoy what you are doing and by doing that being the most wonderful dancer you can be.
Today I will write to you about self-confidence and (in)security within dancers.
As a teacher I see it all around me, dancers who dance for someone else instead of for themselves. This can be literal, like in a competition, dancing for the jury. Or it can be for a ‘made-up’ jury, for instance the people standing on the side of the floor drinking their drinks, or the teachers who are dancing 3 couples away.
Some dance for their (dance)partner, some dance for the photographer.
Either way, they are not dancing for themselves.
A phase!
This is a phase I went through, years back, when I started dancing competitions and trained more often with my partner.
I wanted to become better, and it couldn’t go fast enough. Because I was constantly adjusting to my partner, the (what I thought were) demands of the jury and trying all tips from all teachers at once, I was losing contact with my own dancing.
After a while I didn’t even get happy from dancing, because I lost sight of why I was dancing.
Whenever I stood on the dancefloor I checked, sometimes unconsciously, other peoples faces. But also checked my partner a lot, was he still happy with how I was following? Did the teachers watch me? What did their faces express? Oh my gosh, I missed a step, now I am on the wrong foot, did the teacher see, did my partner notice?
As you can understand, this was very tiring and not helping me feel happy at all!
Lindy Hop should be the happy dance. At that point, for me, it wasn’t.
After a while I talked to a good friend and she said:
‘You are not dancing for you, you are dancing for everyone in the world, but not for your own joy.’
This resonated with me, it is so true.
From that moment on, I tried to always dance for my own happiness, or even for my own improvement, but never again for someone else.
Because if you are happy, if you are doing your own thing, your (dance)partner, teachers and all the people on the social enjoying their drinks, will see your happiness.
The same works for insecurity, if you are insecure, you will look like it, your brain and body will show it. You can train all you want, but it will always be visible.
When you do anything with a smile, it will always work out better than when you do it with frustration.
A smile makes you feel more secure and self-confident in seconds. In all of our classes we remind our students to do 2 things, smile and bounce.
When everything goes wrong, just smile and bounce.
Whenever your smile and bounce is in check, you can’t go wrong
I think that this feeling of confidence should be installed in every dancer, whatever you do, you are doing great. If the move is not working out yet, that is okay, you are trying and therefore growing.
Do you want to try that cool footwork variation? Go on! You messed up?
Perfect! Laugh it out. Don’t worry about what others think about it, maybe they (or you!) found it a cool variation and you have inspired them.
Let go of that insecurity and feel confident about you. Do not deprive yourself from joy, personal growth and the Lindy love because you are dancing for someone else.
Dance for you…
Be you…
Be happy!
Le Open Page d’aujourd’hui est
Eveline van Lievenoogen
Owner, choreographer and teacher at JazzOut
Dancer since 2007.
In love with Danny, my 2 Sphynxes, swingdance, Burlesque, buying new clothes and drinking good wines with friends.
Et vous?
- Vous souhaitez également partager quelque chose qui vous tient à cœur ?
- Une expérience dans le monde du Swing ?
- Un événement historique ou musical des années 30 ?
Envoyez-moi un e-mail et découvrons si vous serez le prochain OPEN PAGE!
Babbo, mari, curieux de nature, penseur infatigable (''malheureusement'' pour moi et pour mes proches), amateur de bonne musique, bon vin et de la bonne bouffe !
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