2018 Marks 10 years of dancing here in the UK, and I thought I should dedicate a blog to celebrate it ;) , sharing the important life lessons I learned during this time.
and without further ado, let's begin the blog.
Dancing has always being part of my life since I was a little girl, I came to the UK to study and kept taking dance classes, in street dance and hip hop, until after a couple of years later... I went back to my roots.. Bolivian Folklore..
I was on my way to meet my first Bolivian friends, and I remember coming out of the Elephant And Castle train station, I felt like I was on a different place ! ( because I live outside London, and there isn't anything latino here ) just listening to people speaking in Spanish, listening to Latin music, felt amazing and changed my life !!
I reckon there is opportunity in anything and everywhere, if you put your mind to it, and if you are determine you can accomplish anything.
With dancing.. most importantly you learn valuable life lessons, that will help you grow as a person and be a better version of yourself.
Be Brave, take risks, and be positive.
Everything new might be like a challenge, I was dancing Bolivian folklore for a while, and wanted to do something different, I love Colombian folklore, but had no experience in dancing to Colombian music, only perhaps the admiration for the music and beautiful dance outfits, which made me take a risk in joining a Colombian dance group, and dance with them and eventually other groups, little did I know that I was going to fulfil a dream of mine (to wear a beautiful outfit) and to dance to Colombian music.
So yes, in life...be brave, be positive, and take risks..
Take the Negative criticism and turn it into a positive. (Don't Give Up)
I have heard quite a few times, "I don't think it's a good idea if you do that", or more straight forward " you can not do that" " you will not be able to do that".
yes in dancing and in life in general, people might tell you many things that might lead you to doubt yourself, but its important to take that negative criticism, and turn it into a positive. I have had people telling me that I wont be able to do certain things, I thought about it, and always though "why?" why wouldn't I be able to do certain things?".
It took me determination and positive thinking to say, well If it hasn't been done before, then I shall try my best to do it, at least I knew that I was going to try and found out by myself whether it can be done or not.... And … It CAN be done.
Believe in yourself, take all the criticism , negative, positive, to learn and build yourself, to allow yourself to grow, as a dancer, and as a person.
Be Positive.
Ok, this one might be similar to the one above, but overall it summarises that in dancing and in life you need a positive approach, for everything and anything.
Which means that if you have a positive outlook on things you can work towards finding solutions, or different ways to do something, having an open mind and positive approach can benefit you, and take you far.
Also it gives you the encouragement and motivation to do what you want to do and to do things that you might not even thought of doing.
It also benefits people around you, your dance team, your friends. And helps you achieve your goals.
Team Work
You get to meet many people and learn form them, and when you dance, team work is crucial, and I would say specially within the Latin American community in London, I have met and dance with many people from Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, etc, and everyone has different customs, and you got to be open to different ways of doing things, communicate better, share your own opinions, be understanding and learn.
You get to learn from different cultures and different ways of doing things, and its amazing. It helps you to understand your dance team and to work together as a group.
Be creative, Think Outside the Box
Dancing, encourages you to be creative, and more creative, not only in customs, but with everything, hairstyle, make up, choreographies etc. And you might be thinking how can this be helpful on a daily basis?
Well being creative, allows you to think outside the box, to think in different ways to do something, and it inspires you to improve.,doing something ..but better, different ..adding something , making it stand out.
Creativity allows you to innovate and do something different and original.
The Show Must Go On.
Something that you learn and you get used to in dancing is that sometimes you have to adapt to different situations, in different events, etc. and sometimes, you have to do something else, or dance another song, or replace someone, or maybe change choreography when someone can't make it, etc.. there are different things that can change.
However, as they say "the show must go on", and you perform with the same smile and energy on the stage, regardless of any inconvenient situation that may happen.
And that's exactly what you get used to do, regardless of some difficulties that you may encounter in life, you (obviously think positive, as mention above) and you carry on, smiling and with the same enthusiasm, thinking positive, and finding a different way to continue and to carry on.
For all that and much more.. thank you for this 10 years of dancing !
