Dancer's Circle

What a beautiful, flowing, value packed, full of gold and silver and everything in between conversation with Karina. I simply can not acknowledge all the goodness!
If you love Musical Theatre, are IN Musical Theatre or wish to make it a career path, this is the episode for you.
If you are inspired and touched by notions such as we are all Earth Humans, borrowing things and time and even our own experiences here in this life time, then this episode is for you. 
If you want to feel who is the wonderfully talented on stage, and equally real and impactful off stage HUMAN that is Karina, this is the episode for you. 

We talk audition process and what best serves us and what does not. Hint - Be the authentically, unique YOU every time. We talk getting the part, and how perfect bliss turns quickly to panic as that adventure then begins. 
We love and gush all over Cats and I get a chocolate craving talking about winning the Golden Ticket. I admit I want to wear a Tiara every day just because and Karina admits she secretly adored being the world's biggest brat. 
We dive into the theatre's secret ingredient of deep cast love and I share my own theory on that phenomenon. We both get goose bumps over the reverence that can be conjured within a cast for each other and for the creation of something truly timeless and soul moving. 

I stalked Karina's Instagram for this one and it shows. I am proud to say that I know all about her love affair with New York (you should see the stars projecting from her eyes as she speaks of it), her Kit Kat sponsorship that surely must be on the way, her Plan B Tik Tok career and most importantly, her daily practice of gratitude, grounding, humour and being present in the here and now. Powerful stuff. 

Karina's emphasis on the importance of the little things, the truth of there being place for all of us (Yes you do Westside Story), and her mission to bring eco friendly accountability to theatres in Australia is admirable and a definite "watch this space". Her desire to see more representation and gender neutrality within the Industry is another "I know she will make change" in this camp note to make. 

Karina and I both profess our no fear attitudes to lemons and our fierce capacity to make some serious lemonade. Queens.

There is a warming celebration of the artist and the artist's arena is this episode that every performer will recognise and relish in. For this very reason, every artist will also feel the pain in the current global climate of an Art's traumatising shutdown. Karina's message of hope? Reach out and reach together, connected and as one. Remember who you are, and why we do what we do. 

We recorded this on a full moon and it was so fitting to read this Cats reference and Instagram post from Karina, "And if you're ever feeling lonely just look at the moon. Someone, somewhere, is looking at it too." We are in this together my artist friends, and this too shall pass. Let us have the conversations, share the real stories, and know none of this is meant to be gone at alone. Pandemic or no pandemic. The performing artist's journey is an intense, struggle fuelled, overwhelming, yet oh so magical choreography... best done with a collective force field. 

Karina embodies the Dancer's Circle mantra - Human first, Dancer second and I am still buzzing from connecting and sharing with this incredible and light filled fellow performing soul. Endlessly grateful. 

Erikka was born to be a showgirl! Literally her glorious height and legs for days have gifted her a wonderful vessel to embark on her Showgirl career with, and embark on that she most certainly has. 

In this episode we get all Showgirl crazy on the Crazy Horse Paris together, so much so I feel we should start up an unofficial Crazy Horse fan crushing club!  We celebrate the artistic seduction and sass that for us embodies the empowered and fierce Showgirl, and the ever ending journey a dancer takes to capture HER in all that we are on the stage. 

We talk European contracts, plunging heart and head into the new and unfamiliar and all that goes on within us as we do. We talk about the lows and the highs and everything in between on those first contracts, from relationship losses, self doubt, detachment and solitude, and how we can hold ourselves within this space and most importantly, evolve and expand from it. 

Erikka also shares when her body started failing on her and screaming out for some investigation which meant that much dreaded, but oh so necessary, time out from working. She reveals her chronic fatigue diagnosis at 14, being pain ridden so much she couldn't walk in recent years and her final diagnosis Rheumatoid Arthritis. 

We talk about how we can possibly rethink the whole 'time off to self care' narrative that most dancers (and dancer employers) not only shun but are completely allergic to! Instead of seeing it as weakness, I offer up to dancers everywhere the notion that taking time during a career to self love, self care and self HEAL is not only a courageous and intelligent act but one that will ultimately prolong a dance career. I love this episode because it circles around what makes up the CONSCIOUS DANCER which is what the Dancer's Circle is all about my friends. Once again we are debunking the sacrificial artist myth and instead we preach self advocacy and self CARE.

I do a little happy dance in my chair as Erikka reflects on how simple self care tools like meditation and shifts in perspective have helped her through her dancer years and minimised her body's challenges and she is excited to deepen that process even further. We get a little woo woo and talk law of attraction, the power of now and manifesting what we want life to look and feel like. 

There is a sprinkle of European coffee love, and an appreciation for all things Euro paced, a shout out to Erikka's mum and a nod to Dirty Dancing. 

Stage note?

Nobody puts Baby (*Erikka) in a corner. 

This conversation is all about being brave, being vulnerable, being real and being rooted in a mission of helping others in their walk out of the darkness and into eating disorder recovery. We talk about Ellen's journey through what she describes as an illness that provoked her to feel the worst pain she has ever felt and what some of the triggers and catalysts were that fed into her illness as she progressed through her dance training. Perfectionism, punishment, pressure and ultimately control governed and dictated her every waking moment, as it categorically does when discussing the mechanisms of most eating disorders. We call out some of the damaging patterns in dance and a dancer's life and reject them as failed constructions and narratives that serve nothing and no one. Why not time for a change? We call out some myths surrounding dance and a dancer's embodiment, and suggest more conscious and empowered ways of being in dance. We visit shame and the powerfully ugly place it occupies in this discourse and why it is so important to reach out for help to break those shame chains. In telling our story we release the secrecy and the absence of self compassion that shame thrives (and can only survive) in. 
We talk body, we talk food, we talk getting real on what dance physically and mentally demands from us. We talk about connection and disconnection from dance as joy. (This is the Dancer's Circle after all). 
We express our gratitude for gratitude!... and speak our truth on our spirituality and how in adversity, pain and suffering, our faith and awareness that we are created from love, is what has enabled us to nourish our self worth and gifted us with resilience, trust and the ability to help and heal others from a place of active choice and calling.
We shout worth because we ARE, in our inherent essence, not from some external validation or unattainable, fear driven, perfection point.
When in Chorus Line they ask, "who am I anyway, am I my resume...?"
I shout NO. NO YOU ARE NOT! 
Although we feature an odd jet flying overhead, the occasional off road trailing of thought, a slight swear word, talk of a treadmill in a uni lecture and the taking off of a neck brace off way too soon, this conversation has Ellen standing in the Dancer's Circle in exactly the same way she does all the things. With kindness, with agency, with authenticity, with truth, with soul and with a sincere generosity that I have found in very few. 
My heart fills when I can write that we round our chat up with a brief exploration of her recovered life, and what that looks like now for her. 
She wouldn't change a thing about her journey and is now dedicating her soul expansion to connecting and helping others know that there is another way. Suffering is not life, dance is not a place to sacrifice yourself, and we all deserve to feel the worth of who we are. 

What a beautifully rich first chat with the young, light filled Amber direct from cruising the Caribbean during the Covid outbreak. We spoke all things feathers and first contract feels, including taking 3 steps back to pre professional training and showing the necessary grit a dancer needs to establish herself in the industry. Some shiny gold thread throughout this share, touching on the importance of rest, downtime, going inwards, owning your own journey, surrendering and gracefully releasing control. We celebrated the versatility and spongeworthiness of the cruise ship environment, and all that a career on the seas can give a dancer. We challenged the prevalent diet culture, and differing degrees of disordered eating by exploring other ways to perceive food and our bodies as the glorious temples that they are - and the very instruments we use to express our art! Yes we need to talk about this dancers.
I loved that our chat also drew on a really prominent aspect of the Dancer's Circle program, that being the liberation and alignment that comes from being authentic in this industry. The benefits from standing within your power and who you are, in the best version of a dancer YOU can be, is the best position to be standing in, and walking into an audition room from. Hint * This is where the super attractor power is ignited & where you get to stay IN LOVE with dance.
Amber has her whole career ahead of her and I wish her the very best. Big hugs coming to her family as soon as she can finally after FAR too long in limbo land get to them. Thank you for standing in the Circle today my fellow dancing soul.
Keep shining.