Continue Reading

This is me thinking... on the pier at Coney Island, NY

I have come to the point where I need to take a break from the dance scene – from attending jams and events, going to clubs (not that I really did anyway), and focusing on other things in my life. I know many people who organise Hip Hop and/or dance related events that regularly take breaks from the scene to refresh themselves and keep them sane.

For a long time I had thought that I should be at every event, be updated in everything that’s going on, etc, but now that I’m experiencing a shift in life, my attitude has changed because I’m just sick of the drama, politics, lack of respect, and all the negative things that come out of the scene, which dominates all the good stuff.

I understand why people have left the scene permanently and gone on to alternatives like other forms of dancing (salsa the most popular) or capoeira and other martial arts. There is so much ego, there are so many cliques, kids wanting to be popular, incestuous relations (dancers dating dancers that other dancers have dated before, lots of common liquids shared *shudder*) and heaps of BS.

So a break is needed, a time for thinking about what’s important and what motivates you, then set new goals and get back into it. Hopefully I can use this blog to continually share stories that inspire and motivate dancers and dancers-to-be (while taking the time to write some crap here and there and rant about some other BS too). Hey, it sets a good balance and gives a real insight into the workings of the scene.

Recently it’s been troubling me that I don’t dance as much as I used to, nor do I really feel like dancing at all. Right now, I think it relates to the fact that I work full-time as an online project manager, then go home and work on my small business – D2MG. In running my own business I am the sole general manager, operations manager, financial officer, event manager, business development manager, sales and marketing manager and website manager. Phew. So after 10-15 hours of working each day, mostly including weekends, there’s little left for me to do but sleep. Oh and the clubs here really suck so that’s a dead-end.

So I get how many dancers before me have stopped completely and focused on other things as they matured and took on more responsibilities. I just refuse to ever let myself get to the point where I stop dancing; even if it’s just me in my room for 10 minutes.

My longing for New York doesn’t help my situation. The culture is just so much more vibrant there, the passion is more evident and shared, the talent is world-class and opportunities to learn are endless. So being halfway across the world, we’ll have to rely on local sources, online sources and once in a while get a glimpse of international level dancers… I hope to contribute to the improvement of all these sources in some way, shape and form. I think we need to jam more too.

Trina