Friday, May 2, 2014

Marinating

So, I've been doing this dance thing for almost a year now. It's had some ups and downs, but for the most part, it's been a blast.

Last night at class, I had a really cool epiphany. I've struggled with the shimmy, been terrified of leading, and gotten confused in formations. But for some reason, it all clicked as we worked on the Turkish Shimmy 1/4 turn with a fade.

We'd done it a few weeks ago, to much confusion, and reviewed it again last night, and for some reason, all of the elements just clicked for me. Shimmy, cool. My hips were like YES YES WE WANT TO SHAKE ROKEDET ALL OVER THE CLASSROOM! My arms waned to be elegant, and my feet actually knew where they were going!

I'd never quite had this type of learning experience. I was The Smart Weirdo growing up, so a lot of the concepts we were being taught, my brain snapped up pretty quickly. A lot of the things that were challenging for me, well... I never had the greatest frustration tolerance (neurodiversity, yay) so I'd learn just enough to skate by and then never speak of the ugly incident again. I don't know why I decided to stick it out with bellydance, even though my body just didn't get it at first, but I'm certainly glad I did, because I'm feeling the payoff now.

It helps that Grace likes to throw a bunch of stuff at us, let it marinate, and then go in and refine it. That's really helpful to me at least... I can think about the new moves, play with them a little at home, get a feel for them, and then get feedback on it. I'm a fan.