Personal

I was thinking today about something I heard once. I believe the context was in retail-- specifically, the handmade retail scene. It was: "What people want most is a piece of you." The thought is that out of all the things people can get, the one thing they'll never have is the ability to be someone else. So they, the customer, love having something that feels like a bit of someone else. That's why people go crazy when they're offered the chance to buy anything a famous person once owned.

I feel the same goes with dancing. People want a taste of YOU. The trouble is finding "you" under all your video-watching and training and popular costuming.

Think about your personal style. I don't mean your dancing, I mean your clothes, the interior of your home, your overall aesthetic. How did you get that? How long did it take? What influenced you? Who influenced you? Do you even realize how deep your influences run?

It took me a long time to realize that some of my dress style was inspired, long long ago, by Claudia from The Babysitter's Club. Big LOL there.

So when I dance, I can see some obvious influences. ATS in general and my first ATS teacher, for example, are always floating on top. Under that is a random mix of every other dancer I've ever YouTube-stalked or whose DVD I've watched. There's other stuff, too-- my love for Classical Indian dance, the soft spot for swing music, the desire to live in a Neo-Victorian fantasy world. Where am "I" in all this? Am I the sum of my parts, or is there some other element that makes me ME?

How do I let myself be me without forgetting all the things I've learned? How do I take the training and aesthetic of others and twist it and shape it around myself? Personally, that's my goal. I don't want to look like another dancer. I'd like to stand out. I'd like my solos to stand out from other solos (not "be better than" but rather "be memorable") and I'd like my improv to stand out, as well-- both in excellent execution and in interesting vocabulary.

It takes time, and the relaxation of the perfection muscles. Everyone has some epic wardrobe fail, one where you realized part way through the day that your shirt/skirt/shoes were a very bad idea and you wished you could crawl into the floor to escape the sudden embarrassment. Without that eff-up, you wouldn't have a catalog of "don'ts", just as if you don't keep track of what works, you never have a list of "dos." Play is essential.

Enough deep thoughts for the moment. I hope to blog more about other stuff in the future.