When you've lost your way...

Tempest's post (http://darklydramatic.blogspot.com/2016/04/dance-at-oceans-edge.html) has resonated with a lot of us in the dance community. Sadly, there's a lot of toxicity that happens that saps the joy out of dancing. And the longer you've done it and the higher level you're at, the worse it gets. But sometimes it's just that (to borrow the metaphor), the beach and the ocean doesn't call to you as much anymore.

Dance used to be so very important and prominent in my life... and it just isn't at the same level anymore. I almost quit a number of times but yet I could never quite stop either. While I could explain all the reasons for it all, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is about what to do when you're in that funk.

And the funk I'm talking here is not just the one that happens every so often when you are somewhat dissatisfied with your dance and wish for more. I'm talking about the "should I stay or should I go" kind where you're not even sure if you want to keep dancing anymore.

Take a break or slow down

You may have been going full throttle for too long and may need a break or at least to slow down and simply not jump on every event that shows up and perhaps lighten your class schedule (whether you're a teacher or a student). Maybe you need to spend time doing something else for a little bit. And that's fine.

One great piece of advice that I got from Belladonna was something that Artemis had once told her, which is that "dance is a patient mistress... and will always be there for you when you are ready." I can vouch firsthand that she is a relentless one. I danced for 5 years while I was in Quebec and took a 4-year break then started again 11.5 years ago and, as I've said above, I haven't been able to quite stop entirely this time... nor do I think it will happen.

Be choosy of where you spend your energy

It's sort of goes with the break and slow down but be more careful and choosy about where you do spend your energy during this period... and I dare say in the future as well. When you're going full throttle, you're likely not noticing where you are expending energy needlessly/pointlessly. Yet you'll find yourself sometimes completely wiped and won't know why. Strive to pick events that feel good for you, those that you have enjoyed in the past. If something had felt toxic in the past, consider not doing it at all.

Whatever you decide, try not to engage in the wonky energy that can sometimes arise from events. Note that, if you're burned out on things, you actually may be more sensitive and/or have less capacity to handle the electric energy of an event. If needed, physically remove yourself from the event and be a little bit of a hermit. People will understand. I've had to do that and have explained to some close friends why I may have seemed distant and, of course, they all understood. 

Forget about the guilt

Easier said than done... I know that firsthand. But, as you're spending less time on dance, you might feel guilty. You have invested a lot of time and energy and money on this dance and now you're not using your time and energy in the same manner. Was it for naught? Is it really a good idea? What if you lose your skill level? You had worked so hard to get to this point, what if you lose it all?

Well, really, you won't lose it all. Trust me, your brain and body will remember and it will come back quickly. And it's actually sometimes good to take a step back and then charge forward again with a different slate and especially a different state of mind. And, who knows, you might be able to pick up things that you could have improved on or done differently that would have been difficult to change before.

And even if, at the end of the day, you do decide to stop dancing, it still hasn't been for naught: you had fun while you did it, you got a good experience, and, yes, perhaps it is time to move on. You may find yourself dancing again some day or not. Moves can be re-learned and costuming can be re-bought.

Spend time on yourself

Spend time just for yourself, doing what you want, without obligation. Rediscover who you are and what you enjoy. Dance may have been there for a reason, perhaps as a healing mechanism. If you're all healed now, then what? In my case, dance was a way in which I could feel things because I was an emotional zombie. Well now that I'm feeling on a daily basis, now what? You don't have to have the answers to that (see below).

Things to ponder

As I alluded in the previous section, as you're spending time rediscovering yourself, some questions will pop to mind. One question that usually plagues us is "what do I want to do in/with my dance?" And that is a very loaded question and can be anxiety provoking as you're contemplating what to do next. Since you likely won't know the answer to that, it may feel like all the more reason to stop. Because if you don't know, then what's the point, right? Well, maybe you don't need to know exactly.

Earlier this year, I was asking myself that very question and agonizing over the fact that I absolutely had no idea what the answer was when I remembered some questions that Ariellah asked in one (or more?) of her artistic workshops. I forget what the source of those questions was and I forget what the exact questions were but they were easier to answer and not so loaded.

Inspired by that memory, I started asking myself what would a successful performance look and feel like? What do I want to put out there in my dance? What do I enjoy putting out there? What feels good to me? Interestingly enough, the answer to those questions were actually the same as before... perhaps with less pressure, though. It most certainly was refreshing to just focus on that instead of the anguish-provoking existential questions.

Another thought is to think back upon a time when dance was fun for you. Think of a performance that especially felt good and that you were proud of. What happened then? What was it about? Any way to get back to that?

Go where inspiration takes you

One thing that's hard while you're taking a step back is being inspired. It feels like everything is meh. So that will make it hard to create something for even just a low key hafla. It sounds simple but it's actually sometimes hard to do b/c that negative voice inside you will chime in that it's not deep enough but here goes: Go wherever inspiration takes you. Don't question it too much. Just do it. (And I dare say that you should keep doing pretty much all the time.)

Inspiration may hit you in different ways than before. It might be for an event. For a partnership. Or maybe a song is calling to you. Or, heck, my last one has been being inspired and rejuvenated at the prospect of making a new costume. Whatever makes you even remotely excited, just follow that thread and see if you can find other exciting things along the way.

Answering questions

Well meaning people may ask you benignly what is going on with you since they haven't seen you as much (or at all). Know that you don't owe anyone an explanation. You can simply answer that you needed to take a step back from dancing for a bit or however you want to phrase it. But you can keep it at a very high level.

When you get back into things...

(well, should you get back into things)... you may notice that you won't necessarily have the same level of intensity in pursuing things or rather it just may be different. So that will feel odd and perhaps like you're not back "fully". Well, again, it just might be different. It's okay.

I'll put it out there but there's also a bit of a malaise in the belly dance community at the moment. Based on my own observations, the community itself feels different than  2.5 years ago, when I started being more reclusive. So it feels different also partly because things are different in general, not just because I'm different. And, of course, in my case, I've now moved across the country so, hello, more difference.

But the point that I want to make here is that different doesn't mean bad or not as interesting anymore. It just means needing to adjust to what is the reality now. And having perhaps a different outlook on things.

Giving up the perfect picture

When you're working on your piece for a performance, you will have some idea of what the perfect picture is... and you should. You also should use that to do visualization and get your mind in the game. It's really a useful tool.

That being said, at one point, you have to let go of that perfect image. Because, honestly, it is extremely rare when a performance will go exactly according to plan and to that perfect image. Therefore, it's best not to be too attached to that mental picture.

I received two pieces of advice from Tempest several years ago that essentially get at this concept.

One of the pieces of advice was that the piece isn't final until it's performed.  Meaning that it's a draft until then. And, from my experience, each time I perform, the piece is slightly different or, sometimes, drastically different. (As a disclaimer, I'm doing a whole lot of improv when I dance so that contributes to that.) But even when the piece is rather fully fleshed out, it will vary from performance to performance. You could view it as when you tell a story: the exact way that you tell a story will vary from time to time.

The other very good advice is to do the best that you can with the circumstances of the day. In the perfect picture, you'd be perfectly composed, in charge, feeling awesome, etc. In reality, you may have come out of a workshop and rushing to get ready for the performance or you didn't sleep enough the night before or you didn't hydrate well enough or eaten enough or you are sick that day or all of the above together or any other circumstance. Meaning that a lot of things can affect your performance capacity on any given day. Do the best that you can with it all and that's all that matters.

When you're too attached to the perfect picture that you have in your head, it will actually hinder you. How? You'll fight whatever is happening. So you were supposed to turn right and you turned left... oh well... keep on going... You were supposed to do a shimmy at this spot and it didn't happen? No one will know. But if you stop your spin midway to go the other way or force a shimmy somewhere else just 'cause, it will show and the piece will look like it's hiccuping. Moreover, you'll have this look on your face that says "oh no! I've messed up!" and people will read it. (If you have a good poker face, it may not show.)

The other thing is that, when these things happen, you'll end up being in your head too much instead of being in the moment. You really do need to be in the moment to be able to emote the emotions and fully flow with the piece.

I think, though, that the most detrimental end result of holding onto to that perfect image is that you will not be satisfied with your piece... and that's really terrible. It's also quite infuriating because you would be attempting to achieve something that is really unattainable. So if you consistently feel like you never perform well enough, assess whether you have that image that is sticking too much in your head. Again, use it as a tool to help you visualize what you want to achieve but then let it go. Try to be Zen about it. You will find yourself much more satisfied with your performances.

The infamous show intro

Probably one of the things that creates the most anxiety to any new performer is the request for the infamous intro for a show. And it remains an anxiety provoking request for a long time, believe me. So here is some of the advice that I normally give.

Elements

Here are some of my thoughts on different things that I've seen as part of  intros:

• Style: Citing which style you're about to perform might be a good idea to put your performance in context.
• Experience: I personally don't say how long I've been dancing as I find that it's no necessarily relevant but if you've been dancing for a short amount of time, you may want to say it to set up expectations. Like if you've been dancing for a few months, I will expect something different than if you've been dancing for years. I'd say that, up until 2 years of experience, it might be worth mentioning. After that, it becomes a point that feels less relevant but that's just my opinion.
• Mini bio: Emphasis here being on "mini". This is what I prefer to use instead of the experience.
• Thanks: Some like to thank the organizers for inviting them or their teacher or whatnot.
• Event promo: If you have an event that is coming up that you'd like to promoted, you can add it... again, keeping it short and making sure that it's appropriate to "pimp" your event. When in doubt, you can ask the current event organizers.
• Performance set up: If you need to provide a little background on the performance, the mood, go ahead and add that.
• Music: Sometimes you may want to cite the artist and song title for your piece.

The key with show intros, as I've already stated, is to get people interested in your piece, setting it and you up as needed for the audience to be in the right frame of mind to experience your performance.

Examples

Here is how my intro used to read:

Celeste is a dark and sassy performer and instructor based in Indianapolis Indiana. Tonight, she invites you to experience the darkness within.

This intro worked well for a while... but I realized last year, as I had not been performing as much for a while, that fewer people knew who I was so I probably needed to expand and explain a bit more who I am. So my intro now reads:

Celeste is a dark and sassy belly dance performer and instructor who recently moved to Seattle WA. Celeste explores dance using her foundation in oriental and ITS and overlaying sinister and gloomy emotions, dark wanderings, to create a tableau of somber themes while keeping a sense of sassy whimsy. Celeste will be returning for her fifth year in a row to Waking Persephone - a dark belly dance festival - as a featured instructor.

Following that intro, I either leave it at that or will add, for example, "Tonight, she's dancing to Crossed by Ego Likeness." (citing the music) or "Tonight, she invites you to take a walk with the devil." (setting up the piece).

Essentially, you want to view the show intro as a calling card. When people see your name on the program and don't know who this person is, you want to answer that for them through your bio but leaving room for them to experience your dance for themselves.

More Tips

Keep it short! I find that overly long intros are getting in the way of the flow of the show. And you'll see that the audience will start getting fidgety. So keep it short and snappy so the audience is excited to see you.

Expectations: Be mindful of what your intro may create in terms of expectations. Just know that, if you say that you've been performing for over 20 years or that you won the best shimmier in 2015, the audience's expectations for your performance will be higher than if you had not mentioned those. But, yanno, you have put in the time and/or you have won the title so it IS a badge of honor. It just depends on whether you want to flash that badge or not.

Don't reveal the punch line! While you can set up the mood and a bit about what the piece is about, you don't need to give the whole piece away. It is preferable to let the audience experience your piece through their own lens than providing the lens for them as they may find a disconnect for whatever reason. Said in another way, an intro that explains too much about the piece is like a movie trailer that makes you feel like you've seen the whole movie already and, once you see the movie, yup, the good parts were in the trailer so there isn't much left to enjoy.

Do provide an intro... aka don't make the organizers/emcee ad lib. I've been guilty of that once or twice but the emcee was a dear friend so I knew that she could wing something but it still wasn't ideal (sorry!). But if you don't know the emcee, well, you may just get "and here's so and so", which is not too terrible or they may create something goofy. It's just not a good idea and puts unnecessary pressure on the emcee who already has the pressure of talking to the audience all night.

Don't wait until the last minute to craft your intro. We all have done that at some point or other and figured that, unless they ask for a bio, we won't think of one (so head in the sand syndrome) only to then be asked at the last minute to provide one. Or, alternately, you've been asked for your music and intro for a while but you wait until the due date to write your intro. That's bound to increase your level of anxiety substantially when, really, you could have handled earlier. (And see next point.)

Give it 24 hours (at least) to mature. Write your intro and then sleep on it. Look at your intro again the next day and see what tweaks you want to make.

Ask for someone to review it. You don't have to do it alone: ask a friend or your instructor to review your intro. They may have ideas that you hadn't thought of. A lot of my revamped intro came from a friend and mentor who provided me feedback on how she views my dance.

Write it as if it was someone else. Most of us are terrible at writing about ourselves... hence the dread of the intro. It helps if you try to pretend that you're writing about another friend instead of yourself. Heck, write one for your friend and then one for yourself, applying the same principles. 

Make your life easier: send yourself your intro. Or keep it in a file somewhere on your cloud drive or in your e-mail or whatnot. I don't know how often over the years I've had to look at sent e-mails to retrieve an intro that I liked. If you are going to repeat a piece, you may want to keep the intro for that piece somewhere for easy retrieval. 

Another way to make your life easier: create a basic intro. The examples that are in italics above were my basic intros. It makes my life so much easier to just be able to pull those, tweak as needed and add as needed, instead of coming up with something each time or try to remember how I normally say it. And it's also very useful should the show organizer suddenly remember the night of the show that intros were needed and is suddenly asking you to write something.

Event Drop

While I'm writing this post under my belly dance blog, this phenomenon can happen after any kind of event: convention, weekend camping, vacation. etc. Essentially, anything that takes you out of your normal routine has the likelihood of bringing event drop... and the more different from your usual routine and the more fun you have, the greater the drop. And how long the event was will also factor into the amount of drop.

Symptoms
So what are some of the symptoms of the drop:

• Lethargy
• Tiredness/sleepiness
• Depression
• Getting teary-eyed easily to downright crying your eyes out
• Sense of loss for your friends who aren't there and feeling lost in general
• Sleeping for long hours or not being able to sleep at all. Or sleeping at odd hours. (Especially if there was a time zone difference.)
• Loss of interest for normal stuff
• Having issues talking to regular people correctly (i.e., having issues readjusting your filters for the regular environment and/or talking about things that other people have no idea what they are)
• Wanting to go back to that happy place
• Feeling like your life sucks right now
• How can you go on living like this?

And the list could go on.

When that happens: don't panic!!!! It's actually normal! That's event drop. It will get better. I promise.

Treatments

Really, time is what will "cure" the event drop. You'll settle back into your routine and normal life and it will be all fine. You will remember the fun times and miss it but it will be with fondness and not the sense of loss that you're feeling right after the event. So the below are not so much 'treatments' of course as they are tips to handle this time.

• Be kind to yourself! This is so very important b/c you may end up having some thoughts pop through your head like you're stupid or childish for feeling this way. No, you're not. And everything will seem hard. It's normal. It takes time. 
• Drink water. That sounds corny, doesn't it? But chances are, you will have neglected to drink enough water and are dehydrated. So drink up.
• Be careful with alcohol intake. See the bullet above about dehydration. But also remember that alcohol tends to make people more depressed so it will only enhance the symptoms instead of dulling them.
• Eat well. You likely ate whatever was available at the event, which may or may not have been healthy for you. So try to eat some actual good food that will help restore your body. And you may not feel hungry b/c of the symptoms so you may need to force feed yourself.
• Indulge... in moderation. Sure, if you want ice cream b/c it will make you feel better, go ahead. But be careful as this can be a slippery slope as emotional eating can be a tricky thing. But if it makes you feel a bit better to indulge, go ahead. Just keep an eye out for whether it's creeping in for too long.
• Snuggle up and watch a movie. Chances are you'll be brain dead to a certain extent. Snuggle up on the couch under blankies with your significant other and/or your pets and watch something mindless. 
• Plan for it. If you can, plan for the fact that all you'll want to do will be vegging on the couch when getting back from the event and whatever that entails. For example, don't push out doing something until when you get back b/c you likely won't do it. I will actually often will make sure that I have good food in the house for when I get back home b/c I won't want to go to the store that night... and maybe not even the next day after I get back.
• Get back to your routine as quickly as you can. Your routine anchors things for you and trigger that you are back to what you normally do... which is excruciating when you have event drop but you do need to prompt your brain that it's back to routine now. And it's really hard on the sleeping schedule, especially if there was a time zone shift. But try to eat when you normally do, go to sleep when you normally do, and if you have a bed time routine (or waking time routine), just do that too.
• Be kind to yourself. It bears repeating so here... I repeated it. :) And it's fine also to say to people you encounter that you just came back from an event and it was so much fun but you're a little out of it now. People will understand. And then you don't have to put on a front so much.

Again, time will make it better... just do what you need to do to take care of yourself in the meantime.

Con crud

As if the drop was not enough, there is such a thing as "con crud", aka getting sick after an event. If you've traveled by plane or have been around lots of people (for example, Gen Con or Dragon Con), you may actually get sick and have a fever, sore throat, coughing, sneezing, headache, etc. Rest is what you need when you suspect you might be coming down with con crud. Well, essentially treat it like when you're coming down with a cold b/c it's very similar, so rest, fluids, chicken soup, etc.

In conclusion...

Hopefully these tips will help. I know firsthand how weird it feels to be so energized for things when you're at the event, only to go home and just not want to do anything anymore. It's jarring and a WTF moment... but it's normal... and it will pass.

How to deal with the weird crowd?

This is long overdue for some students who have asked about this. So, what do you do when the crowd's not really into belly dance?

Well, first off, let's analyze the setting. Though I will experience the weird crowd in a setting like the Greek restaurant where I dance (example, when the Jehova's Witness convention was in town), usually, the phenomenon will happen at a not so conventional place for belly dance like a fundraiser of sorts or some weird show night at a bar or whatnot. Or the setting could be perfectly fine but you just so happen to be THE dark fusion dancer in a sea of happy, shiny cabaret people (that has happened to me, actually).

It can be really hard to keep your composure and keep pushing through... but you have to. Remember what you're there for: to entertain (whether it's a fundraiser or a weird show night at a bar). Someone booked you to do that and believed that you can do it and add to their event: believe in yourself as well.

This is when I think to myself that I should have the courage of my conviction. My conviction here could be just being a belly dancer or my specific genre of belly dance or my specific piece. Just remember what your intent is with your dance. I know that it can be easier said than done but do take a moment to breathe and ground, if you can. Now if you realize that you're in a weird situation as you're dancing, it's the same principle: keep holding onto the intent of the piece, of your dancing, and try to ground yourself if you can.

What it boils down to is that you should keep focused on what you are delivering: some awesome belly dance. It's fine to be a different kind of belly dancer. It's fine to be a belly dancer when people didn't expect one. Just try and relax.

One important thing is to not close yourself off. That will be a natural tendency as you are bound to feel vulnerable. If you've ever worked with techniques to project energy (for example, opening your chest), do use those. I've managed to swing a whole crowd around by projecting energy.

You also will generally be able to find at least one person who will be into watching you dance and your energy will connect with theirs. Or you may even be able to make eye contact with that person. And that will help you carry on. (And oftentimes the person will find you afterwards and tell you how they appreciated you connecting with them.)

Now if you're in a noisy setting like a bar and there's ruckus, I will handle in the following manner (and it's easier for me to adapt as I mostly do improv): I will first direct energy and my attention towards the ruckus. It is incredible how much people will pick up on someone watching them. Generally, one person in the group will tell the rest of the group that they should quiet down and pay attention. If that doesn't happen, then I'll just generally ignore that area and focus on those who ARE paying attention.

And if all else fails and you can't find a good groove or anyone you can connect with, just try to connect with the Universe and Dance. It sounds woo woo but connecting to the joy of dance will help you power through a difficult setting.

The other thing to remember is that these unpleasant instances are what makes you into a better performer. The more you encounter them, deal with them, and come out on the other side unscathed, the better you get at handling them. You can view it as just earning experience under your belt. And those usually make for some good stories to tell later on.

So go forth and do your thing!

Practice Tips Series - Planning What to Practice

If you've ever found time to practice and then didn't know what to do, it's likely because you didn't have a plan... and then this scenario may feel familiar: you end up doing just a little bit and stop and check your phone and noodle around and you have a very unsatisfying practice session. Honestly, without planning, it can be rough to practice.

Another advantage to planning is that it may actually make you WANT to practice. You may get excited about doing something or at least you have an idea of what to do so it doesn't sound so scary.

Now one thing that helps with planning is having goals. We'll cover that in a separate entry as it'd be too long to cover here.

Practice Session Elements

Except for the warmup and cool down, note that the below elements can be done in whichever order makes sense to you... and that not all practice sessions will contain all these elements. These are more suggestions/food for thought than mandatory elements. :)

Warmup

All practice sessions should start with a warmup. One super quick way to get your heart rate up is to shimmy for a few minutes. But, honestly, that's not quite enough. Ideally, you want to spend time on stretching your body a little and prepare it for the work ahead and all that. If you don't quite know where to start, feel free to use your teacher's warmup as it's something that you know and it should have been created with the goal to get your body stretched enough for belly dancing. If you don't take regular classes and don't know where to start, I would strongly encourage getting a belly dance DVD and borrowing something from there. Or just simply think of how you'd need to stretch your body: neck, shoulders, wrists, ankles, legs, knees, hips, etc.

I'm a big proponent of keeping the warmup constant. I use the same warmup for myself as I do for my students with the exception of an alternate warmup that I use when I do more intense drilling sessions. The advantage with a consistent warmup is that it ends up mentally prepping you to practice. You'll know when that first note hits and when you're doing your first stretch that it's practice time. As improbable as it may seem, it creates a sort of Pavlov reaction that trains your brain over time to quiet down to enter practice mode.

Drilling/Isolations

I pretty much always drill at least something or work on isolations in general for at least a few minutes. Even when the focus of a session is more on choreographing/piece development, I will make it a point to drill at least one thing or go through a selection of moves. The reason for this is that I find that it helps get my body and mind aligned that we're doing belly dance now and sort of uploads the concept and some movements to the brain. Other times, the focus of a session will be on drilling.

One of the reasons why drilling and working on isolations and why doing some even for a few minutes is so important is that it helps you perfect your technique. The better you are at technique, the easier it will be to execute movements on stage. So that's an important thing to keep working on. When you work on drilling, your focus should be on feeling the movement through and through and assessing where its weaknesses/areas for improvement are.

There are a number of drills that are possible, obviously. You can create your own, you can pick a DVD and follow along, you can borrow from something that you remember (or noted down) from a workshop, etc. One thing that works really well for me is to work on one thing for the duration of a piece.

Just Dance

I pretty much make it a point in each session to pick a piece (generally randomly on my iPod) and just dance to it. While part of the purpose of this segment is to help develop some of the improv skills, mostly, it's just to have fun. With the drilling and the choreographing/development of a piece, it can get nerve racking and you forget that you actually like to dance. So that's an occasion for me to connect with that awesome feeling that you get when dancing. When I do the "Just Dance" portion, I don't care if I'm doing belly dance at all... the point is to get your body moving and to enjoy the feeling.

Choreographing/Developing a Piece/Practicing Your Piece

I don't choreograph anymore. I do mainly planned spots with improv in-between. I may post an entry on that. Even if you're an improv kind of performer, you need to work on your piece at least a little bit to ensure that it will come out as you want on stage. If you're a choreographer, obviously, you do need to devote some time to doing that. 

Once you've choreographed the piece or my version of it is when I have enough planned spots, then I get in practice mode. I won't consider that I'm practicing the piece until it's stable enough so it may take a number of sessions before I get to practice the piece.

Cool Down/Stretching

I'm terrible at doing this but I will generally do at least a few stretches after I'm done with my practice time to ensure that my body will stay dancing for a long time.

Timeline Planning

Again, we'll talk about goals in a separate entry. But, for example, if one of your goals is to conquer the 3/4 shimmy... you'll need to work on it (that would fall in the drilling category). So you can use your goals to help determine what you'll be working on. If you never work on a thing from your goals list, guess what? You won't achieve your goal. So do look at your list and use that as inspiration for what you want to work on.

Performances may or may not be part of your goals list (they're not on mine). If you know that you have a performance coming up for, say, June, you know that you'll need to get ready for it. So that will help you in determining a timeline for when you need to be done with your choreography or whatever step you know you need to be at by when for a good performance... with time left to practice, right?

So things that you can/want to work on will become blocks and you'll be essentially be using them to help create your practice plan and having a timeline will help you tremendously for that.

Time Budgeting

The concept here is to be realistic about how much time you have for your practice time (which was discussed in the previous entry) and also be mindful of how much time you'll spend on what in your practice. For example: if you know that you have a performance coming up this weekend, you will likely need to spend more time in the "practicing your piece" time of your practice session.

What we mean by "time budgeting" here is having an idea of how much time you'll spend on each segment of your practice time. So, in the example above, if you were to have 30 minutes to practice and spent 25 minutes drilling, you would have no time left to practice your piece (because that remaining 5 minutes should have been spent on warmup). This is where the focus of a session becomes important. So if a session were to be focused on practicing the piece, I may parcel out a 30-minute session like so: 5 minutes for warmup; 5 minutes for drilling; 5 minutes for just dance; 15 minutes for practicing the piece. Or if there was a combo or a movement in my piece that needs a bit more attention drilling, I may skip the "just dance" and do 10 minutes of drilling. Again, this is just an example but that's the idea behind time budgeting: allocating a ball park idea of how long you'll spend on what. That obviously can change during your practice, though, according to your needs.

Additional Tips

• A note on the drilling segment: Whereas it's going to be (or should be) very clear what you're working on for the choreographing/developing a piece/practicing a piece segment, the drilling segment can be very vast and leave you confused if you don't have a plan and will likely end up doing the "just dance" segment instead of focused drilling and perfecting your technique. So before you even start your warmup, think of what you want to work on for your drilling segment. And, as mentioned above, do look at your list of goals for inspiration.
• I generally will plan the details of my practice session of the day during the day, way ahead of when I'll be starting it.
• Try not to bring your electronics in your dance practice. Don't have other web pages open if you're using your computer to play your music. Turn off your phone. Heck, don't even bring it in the room that you're practicing in (unless of course you need to). It's so easy to get distracted by Facebook, texts from friends, the weather, etc.
• I have a dance journal that I keep. I'll touch on this in the goals entry as well. I use a pen and paper dance journal to remove the electronics distraction temptation. I write in it what my practice consisted of, how long for each segment, how long overall, what I need to work on next, discoveries, etc.

Practice Tips Series - Planning When to Practice

So, you intend to practice more. That's great. Next up, you gotta plan. Oh man! Not that! No, seriously, you do have to plan. Raise your hand if you've ever made that promise to practice more, say, 3 times a week, and then a whole week goes by and you haven't practiced once... OR... you've started your practice and didn't know what to do. That all takes planning. This entry will only cover planning your when to practice. The "what" will be covered in a separate entry.

Look at a Typical Week
Chances are, you have some typical weeks where you know that you generally have XX on Tuesday and YY and Thursday. Or whatever your typical activities are. Which days have an opportunity for you to practice? You don't have to pick all days that are available... you just know that they are a possibility. And if you don't have a typical week as things are often in flux, that makes it harder but not impossible to plan.

Be Realistic About Your Time
While you're assessing your typical week, you should also have an honest discussion with yourself over how many times in a (typical) week you can realistically practice. For example, if you are busy 3 nights a week, setting a goal of practicing 5-6 times a week may be too much. You'll need to allow yourself some time to just relax or else you'll, yes, fill all your time with dancing but then you'll get burned on it... and that's much worse than doing fewer practices but keep at it.

Set a Regular Schedule
This will help with consistency. If you can pinpoint some days when you DEFINITELY don't have anything routinely that day, then you may want to plant the idea that these are mandatory practice days. For example, I'm taking a break from teaching classes for now and have definitely nothing Mondays (or very rarely do) and 3 out of 4 Tuesdays are completely free. So Mondays and Tuesdays are days that I've scheduled as mandatory practice days.

The idea here is creating a habit. The more you can create this pattern of you just dance on these days, the easier it will be to just get up and dance. It's really habit that will fuel your willpower to just do it. And the more you can create consistency, the easier it is. If you think vaguely of practicing XX number of times per week but don't set a regular schedule, you'll forget or pretend to forget that you need to do it. It's real easy to let it slip if you don't have a regular schedule. So help yourself by creating a habit.

Respect Your Body
So while you love the idea of practicing like 3 days in a row, your body hates you for it. Well, you just may need a recovery day in-between practice sessions. There is no point in forcing your body to do more than it can do. Again, it goes with being realistic and, if you get too tired from practicing, you will stop doing it altogether and that's not good.

Some food for thought on that, though. You do want to gain stamina so pushing your body isn't necessarily a bad idea... within reason. The good thing about belly dancing is that there is quite a vast array of dance moves that you can practice/drill so you can mix it up. So your upper back is hurting because you drilled a whole bunch of chest circles, well maybe you can work more heavily on hips today. Or you could do one day more focused on drilling, the next day more focused on just dancing, improv, and/or choreographing, and the next day be drilling again. There IS flexibility. And, yes, that may require some different planning (again, will be tackled in a different entry).

Look at the Upcoming Week
The next week may be a typical week... or it may not. If it's not, and it's a busier than normal week, you'll need to work with it. There is no point in pretending it's anything but what it is. This goes also with being realistic about your time, right? So maybe this week, you won't be able to do your 3 times a week that you wanted because you are super busy and going out of town this weekend. Don't fret. How many can you do? Hopefully you can hit at least one of your normally scheduled days. And if you normally dance for like an hour at a time, can you swing a shorter time but more sessions? Try as much as possible to squeeze in at least one practice session, even if only a short one because we want to keep that idea, that habit of practicing regularly.

Now if it's a case of your week has more time in it than it normally would, see if you can't squeeze in an extra practice session. But be kind to yourself: when you have more time, you CAN use it to decompress and relax. You do need that too. But, yanno, if you can squeeze in a bit more, try to do it.

Be Careful about the All or Nothing Scenario
It's a very human tendency so don't beat yourself up for it but be mindful of it. You may go down the road of thinking that, if you can't practice 6 times a week, then there's no point. That is completely untrue. ANY practice time will be beneficial. And, yanno, actually too much isn't good either as you do need some rest and you need to not get burned on dancing to keep dancing.

Also, if you missed your first practice time of the week, that doesn't mean that the week is * beep *. It just means that you didn't practice that day. Don't beat yourself up. Just practice whenever you were scheduled next or if you can make it up another day, do it. In my weight loss journey, one thing that Weight Watchers did for me that was awesome was take care of the guilt of having messed up. Well, it's hard to mess up royally with Weight Watchers but not impossible. What they tell you is that, if you messed up, you get to get back on track at the next meal... you don't even have to wait a full day or a full week. Same here.

Make a Date With Yourself
This sounds silly but comes via The Artist's Way book (kind of a good read but it gets tedious after a while... good food for thought in the beginning): make a date with yourself to practice. Or if you've ever heard or done the Covey "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" workshop (I think that they're up to 8 habits now?): honor your commitments... (addition from me here:) even those with yourself. So you said that you'd practice on Monday and Tuesday nights. DO IT. You'll feel so much better after you've done it. It's a much better feeling than thinking that you should have practiced but didn't... but maybe you can make up for it now... but you don't want to. Know that song and dance? And it will be real easy to get tempted by other things. Those other things can wait. You owe it to yourself to take that time for yourself. Be selfish here. Protect that time even from yourself. ;)

Rewards
This also may sound silly since you're all grown up and all. But, yanno, we're still kids at heart (again, you can read about that in The Artist's Way book). And visuals work GREAT for simple rewards that will make you feel good about the work you've done. How about you get a wall calendar (they must be on sale now) and put it up in your dance space (or somewhere else). You can go to the dollar store or some other store and get stickers. You can write on each day on that calendar that you practiced or put a star or some sticker on the day (great visual impact). When you have reached the minimum number of practice sessions in the week, you can put another sticker (maybe a bigger one?) for the whole week. That visual alone will make you feel good about the work you've done.

And you may want to have milestone rewards as well. So say a full month of doing your minimum, you may say that you'd buy yourself that big bindi you've been drooling about or the DVD from XX dancer that you've been wanting to get. For 3 months of mostly doing every week with the minimum practice sessions (don't go for an all or nothing scenario here; you could set a ratio of 80%? that'd be 10 out of 12 weeks), you get yourself something bigger. The point here is to give yourself an extra incentive to keep at it. The biggest incentive that you'll get and also the biggest reward, though, will be seeing the improvement in your dancing and there is no price for that.

These are merely suggestions and ideas. You can definitely come up with your own. The most important thing is to do what works best for you to keep you motivated.