An inspirational weekend...

I've had a really incredible weekend, time has flown, and I'm scared that if I don't write about it I might just forget it. It started Friday night at Makoto Koji's birthday. I really admire her for her animation aspirations, plus she's a great friend. She's one of the only girls I know who is an Animator, so finding a female animator is pretty rare. I got to hear her goals for animation and I always get advice from her anyway. She told me about Annecy International animation festival, which gave me another idea that I would like to go there in the near future. On Saturday, I was very privelaged to be in the first waacking workshop in Adelaide, taught by Lashaun Price. I really don't have the words to spell just how amazing it was. He was the most entertaining teacher and performer I've seen in a while, so I was laughing for much of the class, and he really gave us a detailed class on the basics and foundations of waacking from shoulder exercises and where the power is meant to come from/what back muscles you should be using to prevent injury, using your imagination in posing, hand positions and good form. In the Urban choreography class, for one, it was so much fun and felt great, he's a very talented and creative choreographer, and two, he really pushed everyone to give it everything, endure the scorching heat of the studio to perform it well and get the choreography in our bodies. The part that really resonated with me was when he was talking about levels in the shapes we were making, he said not to 'cheat on your dancing'. The time we have when we dance is sacred, it's a gift from God that not everyone is able to do so we should do the best we can and give it everything we have. Treat it like a marriage - you don't cheat on your partner, you honour and respect it, so in dancing you do everything properly and physically prepare and condition yourself, your body for dancing. Your body is your temple, your tool for expression so you need to look after it too. I felt this really hit the nail on the head because every time I leave a class, I feel liberated, it is a spiritual experience for me in a way, like you're giving yourself to something much bigger then you. When I feel like I've nailed a class, I am on top of the world. It is so rewarding. So I'd really like to think of dancing as a sacred practice for me. I really do love it, I'm very passionate about dancing as much as I am about Animation and Art. It's more than just a hobby. I got great personal feedback from him too. Two weeks ago I did Candice Brown's workshop (she's another LA choreographer), and her feedback was that although she loved my energy, focus and confidence, I needed to work on picking up the smaller details and timing issues, so I approached Lashaun's workshop with this in mind. I had achieved the timing and levels with Lashaun (he said when he gave me corrections I fixed them and worked really hard at getting the choreography and movement) but I needed to make sure I was very precise with the shapes that my arms were making because if I don't I won't be as strong and it can look quite gangly. You should be able to take a picture and get clear shapes on every pose so this is my new goal. At the end we got quite a detailed history of waacking and some other styles of hip hop such as voguing, and as I really didn't know any of it, it was fascinating. Overall it was such a privelege and joy to be a part of the workshop. I definitely want to do Lashaun's class at the end of the year and I've now got some new moves to add in to my freestyling and choreography, which just adds even more value. It's been a wonderful weekend.