New Year!

Happy new year everyone!  I'm glad you all survived to see 2013. Now, of course we should always be trying to better ourselves, but the new years are great markers to track achievement and remind ourselves to continue setting goals.  Every day is a new day full of new possibilities.

Definitely stole that photo, but hey!  It's true.  What you couldn't do before you can push for now because every day brings about new things that never before existed (space discoveries, tv episodes, friendships, hairstyles, babies, joint pain, ice cream flavors...)

So make goals for yourself.  Don't think it's cliche.  It's self improvement.  Sure you can do it anytime, but the sooner the better.  Like now.  Even if it happens to say January 1 on the calendar.  

I have a few general goals to improve my dancing and pole dancing.  Here's just part of my list:

• Get a 12'' over-split on each side (that's right, a whole foot!)
• Lay flat in center splits
• Achieve a "scorpion" for back flexibility
• More consistent pirouettes (had a fabulous turning dream last night.  Hells yes for 8 en dedans en pointe...)
• Two words: Iron X

Cool, so what are some of your goals?

Well.......

I made those goals and totally plan to work for them, but there have been things in my life that have given me a lot of thought.  So I invite you to join me in my largest goal.

Commit at least one random act of kindness a day.

This world is full of horrible things.  You by no means have to feel like I do, but I want to be the type of person who does positive things not to meet any sort of expectations, not to get special treatment, not to be the coolest most amazing person in the entire world, but because I want to be a decent human being. That's it.  

You never know the difference you make in others' lives or the people who look up to you.  Little actions can make a huge difference.  So let 2013 bring about new things you have never seen before.  Challenge yourself.  Scare yourself.  Push yourself.  Grow! 

P.S. I have had such a wonderful time in Indiana and loved every second working with the girls and women of Indiana Ballet Theatre NW and Studio Venus Pole Fitness.  

Now go live 2013!

Merry Christmas aka Knowing You Love Your Job

So first off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Here's a photo of Connor looking up from playing with his new toys he got on his first Christmas ever.  He has enjoyed his holiday thoroughly. 

So what does my holiday look like?  Well apart from being entertained by my kitten chasing balls around until he slides into inanimate objects, I'm sitting at my laptop working.  Not because I really have to, because I want to.  That's when you know you love your job.  Plus there's Blink 182 and mimosas with my brother here, who would want to leave?

So coming up this week I'll be in the ballet studio for about 11 hours setting a new piece of choreography on the IBT girls.  I found music from a video game of Alice (the one from wonderland) and originally had the idea to base the choreography around the concept of dreams.  Isn't it funny how you dream and everything make sense in the dream and draws from elements of your life...but nothing is how it actually is.  People are taller or with different hair or live in mansions or have extra limbs or something...and how fitting, this quote came to mind:

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

If you can't identify the quote then shame on you.  There were even clues earlier.

So that's project A.

Project B is equally exciting!  But also sexy.  Why?  Because there's pole dancing involved of course! 

This week I am also holding a (full) workshop at Studio Venus!

See? There's a flyer and everything.  So I'm piecing together some of my more unique moves and combinations to share with the ladies of NW Indiana.  Especially with the submission deadline for the Venus Pole Festival competition approaching, which I will also be submitting to. 

Tips for pole competition submissions:

• Be original (e.g. sure everyone goes up into inverts, why not go down? {That's what she said})
• Smooth out your transitions (you're submitting a routine of dancing, not just a series of tricks)
• Dance with conviction (if you don't believe it, your audience won't either)

Ok, that's all I'm giving away for now.  Good luck to all who are submitting and competing! And for those coming to my workshop, I will see you there!  Time for me to get back to work (and my mimosa!) 

The world is ending tomorrow.

So obviously the world isn't actually ending tomorrow. If you honestly think it is you can go ahead and submit your letter of resignation of having ever been my acquaintance at your earliest convenience. But all of the recognition that the end of the Mayan calendar has received lately gave me a thought.  And, yes, it's the time-old thought of life fulfillment, happiness, blah blah blah...

If the world actually ended tomorrow, would you be happy with where your life got to?

Go ahead and ponder that, make a list, hopefully come up with all sorts of affirmations that prove you haven't wasted the last X amount of years.  I actually read an article yesterday about the general happiness of the population and that you ought to be able to list at least 5 positive attributes about yourself.  And not just "Oh I'm a nice person" or "I'm smart" or "I don't shit on people's doorsteps for fun."  Actual accomplishments.  Like "I won a Nobel Prize for my research in radioactive elements!" 

(NOT "I won a Darwin award!") 

www.darwinawards.com/darwin/

^If you've never heard of a Darwin award you should probably educate yourself.  Make sure to set aside a decent chunk of time to this.  It's like a train wreck, you can't stop looking.  Hell I'm sure there's a train wreck or two in there!

Well, while it's nice to think about all of those fabulous accomplishments you've made, the originally posed question makes a fabulous segue into my blog.

This is going to be a home for posts on things like dancing (say in the Missouri Contemporary Ballet) and pole dancing (with my awesome pole studio Muse Pole Fitness).  If you're looking for things like break dancing, look elsewhere.  I tried spinning on my head once.  Never again.

But really, how often to you get to see the same person do things 

Like this  ->

                <-     And like that?

So stay tuned for awesome posts about awesome things (like my kitten) and enjoy your life!  Really.  Enjoy it.  Why else have it?