More Than Dance

That night you struggled you actually did a lot more. Sometimes its not about the exact dancing and getting it exact that is why or how you enjoy a dance class

In this episode I give you my best tricks for not accepting defeat and how to take control before it controls you. I teach you how to make it a place of ease and not a place of stress with examples like:

1. Living in the moment, being present and grateful that you are able to move and dance or that there is something like this in your town. 

2. set and intention and make updates throughout the class to lower the pressure. 

3. Adjust the thermometer - lower intensity, lower endurance, understand your body and energy levels to preserve your stamina so that you can do your goal 

4. Find out whats realistic for you, realistic goals - goals are a rough draft. Micro goals are great too

and more!

Listen so that the next time you are on the verge of throwing the towel in, you can stop and take your power back!

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is to help get you READY for what your first dance class is actually going to be like.

Dance will challenge you physically, mentally AND socially.

I don’t want you walking into your first class thinking it’s going to go perfectly. Because that’s delusional. And I know you KNOW that, but there’s still this little part of us that wants to walk in, pick everything up, look like everybody else and feel like we belong immediately.

You probably won’t. And that does NOT mean dance isn’t for you.

You cannot walk into your first class and expect to dance like the people who have been putting hours and hours into learning how to do this. And I say that as ENCOURAGEMENT because I don’t want you to take one class, look around and think, “I didn’t look like them. I didn’t feel like them. Maybe dance isn’t for me.”

It could absolutely be for you AND be really hard at first.

We talk about keeping your expectations in check, the stories you might already have about yourself like “I don’t have rhythm,” and even how every single night of dance can be different. You can have an AMAZING class one night and come back expecting the same experience the next time and… nope. Welcome to the dance roller coaster.

Some people put off starting because they think they need to prepare to dance before they learn dance.

You don’t need to lose weight first. You don’t need to study dance first. You don’t need to already be athletic or flexible or have danced when you were younger. Dance is for everyone!

Nobody loves acclimating to something new. It’s uncomfortable. It’s hard on your brain AND your body. But then your brain starts figuring it out. Your body starts figuring it out. The thing that felt SO hard starts getting easier.

GET IN THE CLASS and then you can ask yourself would you rather the hard of dancing and learning or the hard of spending the rest of your life wishing you had started.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

There is something really special about being BRAND NEW at something.

In this episode, I talk about the joy of being a beginner dancer and how freeing it can actually be to walk into a room where nobody expects you to have it all figured out yet.

Dance gives us this really cool opportunity to play again. To make time in our lives for something that is literally just FUN, meet people who are figuring it out right alongside us, and build confidence simply by being willing to try.

The more we grow, the more we’re going to find ourselves in rooms where we don’t have all the answers. Being a beginner lets us practice that. It lets us ask the question, try the thing, mess around with it, and realize that not knowing what you’re doing isn’t actually as scary as we make it.

We also talk about how being new at dance can pull you into the moment because you HAVE to be there. You’re paying attention to your body, the movement, the music, and what’s happening right now.

This episode is really an invitation to enjoy the part where you don’t know yet. There is plenty of time to get better  and for now, you get to be a beginner.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is all about when you feel like you’re doing EVERYTHING, but somehow it feels like you’re doing nothing.

This happens in dance all the time, especially when you’re learning something hard or trying to achieve a new skill. It might look like you don’t have it yet. You didn’t get the move. You didn’t memorize all the choreography. So it feels like nothing happened.

You’re working on SO many things.

You’re getting the building blocks. You’re making corrections. You’re remembering more than you did last time. You’re figuring out what doesn’t work. All of that is progress, it just doesn’t have that satisfying “I DID IT” moment yet because you’re not done.

I talk about how I’ve been feeling this way with a bunch of projects I’m working on too. I sit down to work on something and I don’t finish the whole thing, so I move on feeling like I didn’t really get anything done. But I DID. The project moved forward. There was progress. It’s just harder to see when there isn’t a finished product to show for it yet.

And I talk about finally getting my kip in gymnastics. One day, I finally did it. But I didn’t magically learn a kip that day. I had already been building all of the skills I needed. Every attempt, every correction and every time I didn’t get it was giving me more information until eventually all of those pieces came together and I got it.

Sometimes progress is happening way before you have anything to show for it.

Just because you haven’t gotten to the “I DID IT” part yet doesn’t mean you’re doing nothing.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is all about pivoting, gaining control, letting things go, and really asking yourself if you’re able to release something and trust the process.

We have expectations. We think something is going to go a certain way and then when it doesn’t, we immediately want to figure out how to gain control again.

But we aren’t necessarily meant to gain control.

We’re meant to learn how to pivot and adapt ( the more elite skills)

Can you take what’s happening, even if it’s not what you expected, and figure out what to do with it? Can you let go of what you thought it was supposed to be and work with what you actually have?

Dance gives us SO many opportunities to practice this. You forget the choreography. You’re in the wrong spot. Your body isn’t doing what you thought it was going to do that day. Something changes in class. You mess up. You have to figure out what to do next instead of getting stuck on what was supposed to happen. The more you dance, the more you get to practice pivoting, adapting, and continuing anyway.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is all about why you should do the easy thing first (contrary to what doing the easy thing first and how doing something easy can actually help you get A LOT more done because it creates momentum.

Especially if you’re feeling stuck with dance or maybe you’re trying to get back into it, do what’s easy first. It could be taking the easier class level. Maybe it’s taking a shorter class. Maybe it’s going to the class you already know you like. Whatever it is, make it easier for yourself to actually DO the thing.

Once you do it you create momentum for yourself and then you do more things with the motivation thats created. 

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

In this episode, we’re playing with speed.

Just like I use dimming and exaggerating to change the size of a movement, one of the teaching techniques I use all the time is changing the speed of choreography to change the way you learn it.

Sometimes I slow it WAY down.

Slowing something down gives you more time to think. You can actually see the transitions, figure out where your weight needs to go, understand how you’re getting from one movement to the next, and notice all of those little things that are really easy to miss at full speed.

Then I do the complete opposite.

I make you do it FASTER.

When you speed choreography up, your body has to react faster, your muscles have to work faster, and your brain has to remember what comes next faster. Then when we bring it back down to the actual tempo, suddenly it feels like you have so much more time.

I talk about why I use both of these techniques in my classes and how after teaching dance for so many years, I’ve found them useful. 

Changing the conditions so your brain and body can understand it differently.

Slow it down so you can see more or speeding  it up so you can think faster.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

Through the many, many dance lessons I’ve taught over the years, I’ve figured out one of the easiest ways to make someone a better dancer in less than five minutes.

Exaggerate the movement.

When dancers are first starting out, they usually don’t realize how much space they actually need to take up. So when I tell someone to make something HUGE, what feels ridiculously big to them usually ends up being just appropriately big.

In this episode, I talk about why exaggerating movement works so quickly and how it helps you understand something else that newer dancers don’t always know how to do yet, which is using all of the muscles you need at the same time.

Exaggeration basically turns a giant flashlight on the movement.

Now you can feel it. You can see it. You know what muscles are working. You start to understand where the movement is supposed to go. And once your body knows what BIG feels like, you have so much more to work with.

Because even when you think you’re being big, chances are you’re probably not as big as you think you are.

But we also talk about the opposite and when you actually need to dim the movement down.

Sometimes making something smaller and lighter gives your body a chance to learn it without trying to do everything at once. Get the movement into your body first. Then you can turn the volume back up.

This episode is about learning how to play with both. Making it bigger when you need more and making it smaller when you need to learn.

And sometimes that one adjustment can change your dancing in less than five minutes.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is a little trip down memory lane and about knowing that dance is something that lives within you.

I talk about going back to my old studio for the alumni show, being part of the recital again, and getting to think about all of the people and experiences that helped shape me as a dancer and as a person.

I even got to learn about my former dance teacher and her studio, which made me think about how far back some of these connections go and how cool it is to see where parts of you came from.

Because dance shapes us and then helps us become who we are.

Yes, it's turns and technique and learning how to dance, but it's also friendships, resilience, confidence, showing up, learning, and realizing that you can do things you didn't know you could do.

This episode is an invitation to think about the people who helped shape you, just like going back had me thinking about the teachers and people who shaped me.

And really, what is dance going to look like throughout your life?

Because it doesn't necessarily leave you when you leave the studio. The things you learned, the confidence you built, the people you met, and the experiences you had come with you.

Dance becomes part of your life and then enhances the way you live it.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio