I went to watch a dance battle last night. There were many dancers participating in the battle, many different expressions and flavours of the same dance. The parts I enjoyed the most were when the dancers took their time, listened and connected to the music, expressed their feelings in playful and joyful way. On the other hand, moments which were the less appealing to me were when the dancers started to concentrate more on beating the other dancer instead of staying with their own dance and joy. In that moment a tension started to grow and moments of joy started to fade away.
When we battle staying in joy and flow can be sometimes challenging. I know it from my own experience. I remember the shift I experienced when I was participating in a dance battle several years ago. Before I entered the battle I was dancing and warmingup myself. I really enjoyed the music and I could feel the joy which was growing with every move. The change came when I started to observe other dancers. I saw how great they are. I started to feel nervous. While paying attention to others I slowly stopped paying attention to myself and my dance. That was the moment I started to loose connection with my dance and joy. I got distracted by watching others and comparing myself with them.
In order to experience state of flow one of the precondition is to prevent ourselves from distraction. We need to focus. While dancing we can focus on our body, sensations, music, inspiration or dance material coming from the other person or from the environment. This set up can help us to stay with ourselves, our dance, creativity and joy.
One of the inspiring battle for me was to see b-boy Kriss against b-boy Neguin. Here you can see the battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNLkY3C5bV0. In this battle Neguin shows his excellent break dance skills, articulating them with fierce energy and warrior attitude. On the other hand Kriss was successful in being faithful to his dance, joy and creativity inspite of being challenged by competitive attitude of Neguin.
Before entering a dance battle remember to yourself why you dance. Because when you loose that feeling of joy we all loose. Stay flow.
Love always and in all ways,
Jindriska
Comments