Realistic Viewpoints

Recently I attended a dance workshop, where a very well known instructor proudly declared anyone with less than 10 years of dance experience was to be considered a complete beginner. And while I agree that two years does not an expert make, if you reviewed even her own career, the math didn’t add up. She was performing as a professional well before her ten year anniversary.

I came away from this encounter with much to chew on, but two main points keep repeating in my mind.

First off, no matter how much experience someone may have, never drink the kool-aid without sniffing it first. You can learn something from everyone, even the greenest novice in your class if you are open and paying attention. And no one, no matter how much they may try to shove it down your throat that they are the living alpha and omega of information on a particular topic, has all of the answers. Go into everything with your intellectual objectivity turned on and keep only the things that work for you.

The second point, at least for me was the more important…and that is simply that it is ok to suck. What is not ok is to continue to suck if this is your chosen path in life. No one starts out perfect … even Anna Pavlova had to spend years in training, and I am sure she had her bad moments. I am coming to accept, that my technique is not where it should be and as I begin to work on righting this issue, things are hard that in my head should be a cakewalk. The human nature in me wants to just quit...to throw my hands in the air and say the infamous “I can’t do this, this is too hard! Look how terrible I am.” But the truly great people became great, not because they were born that way, but because they didn’t let this feeling of inadequacy shut them down. They kept pushing and practicing, each day getting a little better and growing a little more, until one day they were able to manifest the artist that lives in their soul here in the real world. I know in my heart, I am pig-headed enough to do this. And if I start to have doubts, all I have to do is ask my bf (the one I outlasted 4 years of his relationship phobia to be with) to confirm my stubbornness is without equal ;).

So as I ease into this experiment, I enter with a realistic vision of myself. Right now, I am in most people’s opinion a good dancer. Compared to where I want to be, however, I do indeed “suck”. And for now that is o.k. I accept that it will be this way for a while even. But if I keep at it, persevere even when I’d rather lie on the couch and do my best impression of a knot on a log, then this too shall pass. And one day, I will be able to say, “You know, I’m not that bad”. And even further down the road, I will be that dancer and model and all around person that lives in my head.