Perfection & Letting lose

[NinjaFrodo]

I've taken up a new activity within the last year, I actually started doing it consistently since May of this year and I had an amazing experience i wanted to share with you guys. The activity is hip-hop dancing and i felt it appropriate to lesson 4 because it has to do with the expectation of being perfect.

I've done about 10-12 classes so far and when i first started it was soooo hard. It was very hard not because of the choreography, the technique, the instructor or anything like that, it was hard because I would expect myself to do the dance perfectly and I would get frustrated with myself and tell myself I wasn't good at it. I somewhat enjoyed doing it but i mostly didn't because I was wrecking the experience with my need to be perfect.

As I attended each class, things started to feel better and it was easier to make mistakes. When i say easier i mean it was easier for me to accept them and myself. Today I just gave up trying to do the whole routine, I just didn't care if i got the whole thing or not. I also didn't care if i looked foolish or goofy (that was another set of thoughts i was having while dancing). I let lose, trusted my memory and did the routine how i thought it went instead of worrying that i wasn't getting it right and avoid doing things because i didn't think it was right. You know what, I actually had the most fun in that class then i've had before and I also did the best that i've ever done.

Letting go was the best thing i could have done because I really got into the dancing and I started to feel that passion that you might hear a professional dancer or singer talk about. This would be something really great to cultivate and would be amazing to transfer this to many diffrent areas of life, and other peoples lives too.



Mike

[Bob-o Bingo]

Mike, your experience with learning dance is wonderful! If I didn't have two left feet, I might have a go at it myself. I'll never forget a time I went to a square dance at a local Volunteer Fire House. The caller of the square dances was very good, and some of the dancers in our group were encouraging... so there I was, out on the floor making a fool of myself.

You mentioned "letting go"... well, that's what I eventually did. As I was dancing with a group of six people, and we were swinging and whirling about, the routines just kept getting more and more complex. Eventually I got winded and had to quit--right in the middle of a dance.

Since we were dancing near the side of the fire hall--where the onlookers were standing and sitting--I quickly grabbed a chair and sat down, right in the middle of the song. What happened next was so funny I almost wet my pants from laughing.

Every time people changed partners, they couldn't find ME! THEY were lost in the routine... until they moved on to the next partner. Watching the dazed and confused expressions of the people in my group of six was priceless! And the best part was, they all forgave me. It was the most fun I've even had on the dance floor... well... the third most fun I've had dancing. It was an evening I'll never forget. And now you've inspired me to give it another try at 65 years of age! THANKS, MIKE!!!