What will you do with your dance?

As the end of the year draws near and it's time for pondering on what happened over the last year and making New Year's resolutions, I invite you to ponder a few things about belly dance... or if you are an artist who does another form of art, you could easily substitute "belly dance" for "your art". ;)

Several years ago (about 4, to be precise), Sabrina Fox (then from Atash Maya) had posted on tribe some questions that left me pondering... and I'm asking them to you.

Where do I want dance to take me?
This one was interestingly hard to answer. I mean, to give an honest answer requires you to dig inside of you and see what you want... what you really really want. (And I'll stop there because I'm starting to sound like a Spice Girls song. :p) "Where" here is obviously not a physical location... although it could be.

Where will I let dance take me?
This one initially totally highlighted how much of a control freak I can be. "What do you mean, let dance take me somewhere? I'm in charge here!" It actually ended up being the start of me realizing that, oftentimes in art, you have to let go of your heavy grip on things and allow the art to take over. If you don't practice art daily, that can be real hard to do. I promise that it gets easier with time, though. ;) But the question is also more than this... explore it.

What will I do with dance?
This one, I'm adding to the mix. It wasn't part of the original set of questions... only the first two were. So you've been taking classes for a while and have been enjoying them thoroughly. You've watched a few shows and have been amazed at what you saw. Now... what will YOU do with dance? Will you join in the ranks of performers? Or keep it as a physical activity without the performing aspect? PLEASE note that neither answer is right or wrong... it's right or wrong for YOU... and the answer might be different depending on the moment.

Fun in dance... NOW!
Performing is loaded with so many heavy things... but, please have fun with this dance. That's really what it is about. And don't push out when you'll perform based on some silly notion that only exists in your head (if only I was 10 lbs lighter... if only I had these many years of experience... if only I had this piece of costume... if only...). There is nothing like RIGHT NOW to get you started. Don't wait!

Write down thoughts/feelings
Do feel free to grab a notebook and pen and write down thoughts on these questions and your feelings around dance and performing and whatever else you feel like writing about. Vent your heart out on paper. Or you could do it electronically. I find that, oftentimes, writing down my feelings, especially if they are heavy, helps me get rid of them and gain better clarity.

Remember to DO!
For all that I'm inviting you to ponder and write and all that, don't fall prey to what I do: I tend to overanalyze, overthink, over-whatever... It took SEVERAL times of being told by both Ariellah and my yoga mentor that it's time to do stuff instead of thinking before it finally sank in. Now, I know better how to keep a balance between all of it. Why, yes, you need to actually dance in order to dance. :p