Being part of Strictly (well, by association!)

Can't believe it's more than a month since my dance lesson with Camilla Dallerup - former winner of Strictly Come Dancing (Strictly Come Dancing). I spent about three hours getting to the lesson, in Sunbury Upon Thames, but it was so worth the trip. We spent the time working on my rumba action, which was a bit lame as I wasn't using my legs properly - not straightening them enough or using my muscles correctly. After half an hour I could already feel my limbs aching! And rumba is the slowest dance too.

STRICTLY PALS: With Camilla Dallerup-Sacre, former winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008 and now not only a dance teacher but an NLP master! 

It was great to see Camilla again. She writes for Bodyfit, but I met her a few years back interviewing her for Soul&Spirit magazine, which I edited for five years (Camilla is into all the same spiritual stuff as me, i.e. crystals, law of attraction, that kinda thing. In fact, she has launched her new website camillasacredallerup.com all about her life coaching/NLP work - check it out!). And the lesson taught me so much - I never knew rumba was quite so technical! Just listening to the music and dancing around the studio felt so great. I litereally come alive when I'm dancing, though I still feel a bit shy in front of others, and only really let loose the real me when prancing in front of my bedroom mirror. I don't know why that is: fear of looking silly, perhaps, or not being good enough (yes, that's prob it, me and my perfectionist tendencies).

SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS: Meeting Camilla for the first time at the Hay House I Can Do It event in 2011 in London

Since the lesson I've been practicing my rumba walks as often as possible, including that same day as I went to a salsa night and must have looked rather odd to all the other dancers as I kept sashaying across the carpet at the front of the room on my own, doing a very non-salsa dance. I did some more on stage at a salsa night the other week, while waiting for the DJ to change tracks and then come dance cha cha with me - which is just a faster version of rumba anyway). And I also practised them at the launch of Flavia and Russell Grant's Zalsa Fitness DVD (zalzafitness.com) at Pineapple studios (pineapple.uk.com), as they did a short class to introduce a group of journos to the DVD routines, one of which was rumba.

Strictly dreams...
Ever since watching the first episode of Strictly back in 2004, I've always said I wanted to be on the show, but not being a celeb or a pro dancer was going to make it tricky! Unless I got the job presenting It Take's Two.. Now there's a thought. But then the other day it occured to me that between my self and the two deputy editor's I've worked with on Soul&Spirit and Bodyfit, we've interviewed most of the pros and a fair number of the celebs too! I met Anton when he was holding auditions for members of the public to be in a dance event at Trafalgar square back in 2006, I think; I interviewed Darren Bennett and his wife Lilia for the EADT newspaper where I used to work (and Darren's brother Dale used to dance with a girl from my old school too). I have a pic of me with them somewhere, just can't find it; I've interviewed and met Flavia and her former celeb partner Russell Grant ...

GETTING ZALZA FIT! With Russell and Flavia at the launch of their Zalsa Fitness DVD at Pineapple studios, London, early March

KEEEEP DANCING! With Karen Hardy at her studios in Imperial Wharf, London, where I did a workshop and later a private lesson - more rumba to practise what I'd learned with Camilla weeks earlier

... Karen Hardy last December when I interviewed her for Bodyfit and did her dance workshop (karenhardystudios.com); I met Andrew Cuerden, who was in the first series, at a salsa holiday weekend in Suffolk many moons ago, I interviewed Kristina Rihanoff over the phone, and we've got Natalie Lowe going into the mag in a month or so. And I also interviewed Robin Windsor for my local rag, when he was first in Burn the Floor, before Striclty, and had dance lessons with his dad in a village hall in Suffolk for a few months!!! (by the way, Burn the Floor is on again in the West End and I'm so excited and will def be going at some point (burnthefloor.com)
On the celeb side there's Lynda Bellingham, Gabby Logan and, of course, Russell, who I've already mentioned. I'm sure there are more and I just can't remember right now.
I also used to dance at the same school as Crystal Main (who was one of the group dancers on Stricly and went on to be in Brendan Cole's show). So, I reckon I HAVE been part of Stricly by association! Well, that's what I like to think anyway :-)
For now, I'm hooked on ballroom and Latin again I want to do a ProAm competition (where you compete with a professional), and also take part in the showcase coming up at Karen Hardy's Studio at the end of April... watch this space!
As Camilla says on her coaching website, you have to 'Dream, Act, Believe', so perhaps if I focus enough positive intentions on my dancing dreams, I might just turn them into a reality. Life has a funny way of manifesting what you want when you relax and get out of your own way :-) Fingers crossed!

Do you listen to your body?

It's 6.30pm and I'm in bed. Why? Because I expended 90% of my energy yesterday travelling around London and then dancing until 10.30pm at a salsa night. I loved every single juicy minute of it, but now I'm paying the price, and I knew in advance that I would.

Bodily rhythms
Ever since attending a workshop about menstruation a couple of years ago and finally working out the connection between a woman's cycle, emotions and energy (yes, it took 20 years for the penny to drop about why I'd sometimes cry the day before my period) and how each seven days is linked to a different season, I've had more awareness of the my mind/body connection. Check out the workshop here www.flyinginspiration.co.uk.
For example, in 'winter', which is the menstruation phase, a woman ought to be chilling out, taking care of herself, not pushing and striving etc, where as when she's in her 'summer' phase, i.e. ovulating, she's more vibrant, vivacious and energetic. 
Someone else who teaches about women's health and cycles is Dr Christiane Northrup. I'd highly recommend her books to anyone (www.drnorthrup.com)

Feeling energised
Two weeks ago I was in my 'summer' and had been on a spiritual workshop in London by the lovely people who created the books and retreats called F**k It! The ultimate spiritual way (ignore the profanity, their teaching truly is spiritual www.thefuckitlife.com). After that, I was really feeling up for dancing, yet I'd neglected to take my Latin shoes with me. Ironically, I'd automatically put them into my bag but then changed my mind and taken them out for some reason, rationalising that I'd be too tired to go after the workshop (another case of intuition being right but left-brain analyser not listening). But rather than feeling tired, I was energised by the weekend's activities and talks, and hesitated to get the train home, wishing I could magic up my shoes and a new top just so I could go.

Not listening to my body
So, this weekend, knowing it was two weeks later and hence my insular, time-to-rest 'winter' time, I ought not have planned so many activities. But I seem to love living life back to front: doing things when I ought not, and not doing things when I really should be getting my arse into gear!
And, as a result of overstretching myself, energywise, I'm now in bed, pressed up against a hot water bottle (not a hot guy, sadly) having eaten nothing but three packets of Yu fruit drops for dinner an hour ago. I'll have to save the blog I had planned to write, all about Strictly Come Dancing, to another time. That and the rest of the Vipassana meditation entries.

Right, I'd better sign off before I ....... Zzzzzzzzzz

Busy doing nothing... after summer of dancing

Why’s it so hard to sit and do nothing? Having postponed my London dentist appointment and decided not to go a free dance workshop as my body is still tired from an onslaught of salsa in Chelmsford last night, I’ve opted instead to sit on my sofa reading various magazines and books, including The Life of Pi, which I’m very much enjoying and has made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions. Though I’m loving the peace and relaxation, the day seems to be slipping by rapidly, and I can’t help but compare this leisurely pace to a few months ago, when I was at the height of my ‘manic London schedule’, in which I stretched time, or so it seemed, by cramming in so much. I was going there 2-3 times per week to rehearse or perform in some capacity. I’m wondering how on earth I found the energy to schlep all the way over to Fulham each Friday to practise for salsa shows, perform on weeknights and get to bed at around 2am then work the next day; rehearse an afro samba number for a jive ball and then zumba event; go on a Croatia salsa holiday that involved an extremely erratic sleep schedule; do Olympics rehearsals for the closing ceremony, which not only overlapped somewhat with the salsa shows but meant whole weekends in our heavy costumes and pain-inducing shoes, and – the finale! – parading in both the Notting Hill Carnival for three hours, followed by more dancing in the streets, then the Thames Festival a fortnight later, which was the same as Notting Hill but at night and for longer! (see below for photographic evidence of all the aforementioned shows)

BRIGHT LIGHTS: The flag handover ceemony for London 2012 Olympics, dancing as one of the passistas (with the wheels)

PARADE OF A TIME! At the Thames Festival, Sep 9, 2012

STREET LIFE: Salsa freestyling at the Latin Rave party, Notting Hill, after the parade

SHAKE IT UP! Dancing with 'ala Shaik' with the Paraiso School of Samba at Notting Hill Carnival, Aug 2012

MAKING A SPLASH: At the Salsa Beach Splash Festival in Croatia, July 2012

A TOUGH LIFE: Backstage with the boys from the Laith Sami Performing Group after our 'Terminator burlesque salsa hiphop routine! 

GOLDEN GIRL: In the Olympic stadium after the finale of the closing ceremony, August 11, 2012 

TRIBAL: At the 'Sex and Candy' Jive Ball in April, where I performed with Monika Molnar's DanceMyWay student group afro samba routine

 

So now, sitting here listening to Ibiza chillout music and looking out the window at the glorious sight of white fluffy clouds backlit by the sun, giving them a luminous glow around the edges, it’s weird to be doing what I consider not much. I know rest and recuperation is precisely what I need, yet the harsh taskmaster of my mind seems insistent upon telling me I ought to be getting ready to go out this evening, or to be getting on with writing my book, or doing something else either productive or sociable.

The drive to be productive

Why is this? Is it just me, or does everyone feel like they should be doing more? I think social networking is partly to blame. Every time I check Facebook I see another event I want to go to – a class, a workshop, a party – and then feel bad about missing it, as if my life is somehow going to be less enjoyable if I stay home. I’ve only been out of the London salsa scene for a couple of months yet it feels like longer. And, although I was enjoying my break, last night at the Chelmsford event, a handful of the City crowd were there to perform, which just made me yearn to be part of another group. I’d promised myself I’d take it easy for the rest of the year, spend more time by myself, get my stuff in order, finally have the clear out and tidy up I’ve been needing to do for so long, and yet there I was telling them all I’d be at the next audition in a few weeks, eager and raring to get back into another tiring, not to mention expensive, dance schedule.

I’m not advocating I, or anyone, stop following my/their passions, I’m just wondering where this inner drive to always be busy comes from, and the feeling of missing out. I've done more in the past 6-12 months than perhaps in any other period of my life so far, so why this relentless feeling of needing to do more? Anyway, for the rest of this weekend I’ll try to be content with stillness – and reading – and also avoid Facebook. J