More Than Dance

In this episode, I talk about the one skill that will instantly make you a better performer, whether you’re dancing, speaking, or showing up in any room where eyes are on you.

I introduce the idea of anchoring to an audience member.

I share stories from performing on stage, including how easy it is to get so dialed into your performance that you lose awareness of what’s happening around you, and how one unreceptive face can completely throw your nervous system if you let it.

From there, I talk about a recent women’s conference I spoke at and how, mid-performance, I was actively reflecting: What’s working? What’s landing? Instead of scanning the room for approval, I locked in on the person who was visibly excited.

This is something comedians do incredibly well with crowd work. They understand that performance is an exchange. Giving and receiving. 

I walk you through:
    •    How to find your anchor
    •    What body language to look for
    •    How eye contact creates safety and grounding
    •    Why you don’t put the energy back on yourself when something feels off
    •    How to return to your anchor anytime you feel off

Your anchor becomes your safe point. When you focus on them, you remember that what you’re offering matters. You remember that you deserve to be on that stage, even in unfamiliar environments.

This episode is about learning how to feel supported while performing, trusting the exchange, and letting one receptive person ground you so you can give everything you’ve prepared confidently.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is all about how dance makes you a better decision-maker, and ultimately, a better person.

I break down six ways dance trains your brain and nervous system to move through life with more clarity, confidence, and trust, even when you don’t have all the answers.

We start with instinct. Dance teaches you how to trust yourself, to mess up, go for it, and commit fully. You learn to rely on your training, your technique, and your experimentation (improv). Instead of overthinking, you move, adjust, and get feedback faster. Those micro decisions on the dance floor add up,  and suddenly, you’re making faster, cleaner decisions everywhere else.

We talk about commitment and ownership. Dance trains you to choose and stand by it, even when you’re unsure. Sometimes the move isn’t perfect, but clarity almost always reads better than hesitation. People respond to decisive energy, and dance teaches you how to embody it.

We go into flow state, that place where things click, creativity opens, and decisions feel obvious instead of heavy. Learning how to access flow through movement teaches you how to find that same alignment off the dance floor.

We also explore resilience and recovery, knowing when to push, when to pull back, when to go on offense, and when to protect your energy. Dance gives you a felt sense of your goal and teaches you how to recalibrate without spiraling.

And finally, we talk about getting out of your head and into your body. Less analyzing. More feeling. Dance teaches you when to think, and when to let go.

This episode is about learning to trust your internal compass, move with clarity, and make decisions that feel grounded instead of forced,on the dance floor and in real life.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is about learning how to love something on purpose as opposed to the way we think we should love something: instantly

As a dancer, I’ve always learned how to love music. If it doesn’t hit immediately, I don’t write it off. I already know I want to love it, and that changes how I listen. 

I can’t tell you how many times we finish a song in class and someone says, “I didn’t like this at first… and now I’m obsessed.” And that’s the magic. The choreography. The movement. The way dancing to something creates a relationship with it. That mindset is a big reason why I don’t announce class titles ahead of time, because the second people think they know what they like, they stop letting themselves be surprised. Sometimes the things we resist end up being the things we treasure the most.

In this episode, I talk about why we don’t like things at first (specifically in terms of music)

• maybe we don’t like the artist
• maybe it’s not our usual style
• maybe it reminds us of something we don’t like
• maybe it feels repetitive
• maybe we don’t understand how we’d move through it yet

And then I walk you through the art of learning to love, sometimes love comes after familiarity, not before.

We talk about:

• habit and exposure (and why repetition actually matters)
• how context changes everything
• how music becomes meaningful once it’s attached to memory
• why confidence grows from competence, and competence creates appreciation

I also connect this to life and relationships. The way I love Josh now is not the same way I loved him at the beginning, it’s deeper because I know more. I have more appreciation because I know more about him. 

This episode is about meeting things where they are, letting them teach you, and allowing love to grow instead of demanding it show up immediately.

Appreciation isn’t passive, It’s a skill we get to practice!!

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is about knowing yourself well enough to build a life that actually feels good to live in using an activity called the Wheel of Life (or life pie) and why you are never just one thing even when you accidentally live like you are.

We talk about how it’s easy to base your worth on one slice of the pie (work, fitness, dance, productivity), without realizing how much the other slices are quietly pushing and pulling on your energy.

I share how I did a time audit and could visually see where my time was actually going and how uneven it was across the different areas of my life.

We explore seasons of life and how sometimes if you're putting more energy somewhere it has to come from someplace else.  If you’re always choosing the path of least resistance, you may be hiding in one slice so you don’t have to face the harder ones. And over time, that creates imbalance.

I walk you through:

• Rating your life across categories (you can use 8 or expand to 16)
• Understanding how boundaries keep your “wheel spokes” even
• Why an underfilled slice creates a bumpy ride, no matter how strong the others are
• How this framework makes journaling, reflection, and goal-setting clearer and way less overwhelming

When you know where your energy is leaking or missing, you finally know where to put your attention. And when you feel more complete, you move through life more aligned, more authentic, and with a lot more ease.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is for you if you’ve tried journaling and found it intimidating or hard to keep up with…

If you don't currently have a journal practice..

If you love making lists…

Or if you wish to have some moments of reflection at the end of the year. 

In this episode, I completely rewrite what journaling gets to look like.

I share my own journaling journey and how it never looked like the perfect “Dear Diary” (Britney Spears) place. I recount how journaling first took place in my life and how it evolved.. the first notebook my teacher gave me with a handwritten note inside, to passing notebooks around with friends, to quotes, lists, colors, markers. Realizing that I was journaling before I even called it that. 

We talk about:

• Why journaling doesn’t have to look one way

• How lists, colors, doodles, and even rereading old notes count

• How expression on paper mirrors improvisation on the dance floor 

• Using journaling to get thoughts out of your head so they stop looping

• Why “boring” lives still hold powerful material when written down

I also share how pulling a card from my favorite deck has become part of my  practice ... so stay with me toward the end for a little intuitive moment together.

And finally, we zoom out and talk about progress as journaling, including how our studio showcase videos and watching yourself grow over time is in fact, a form of journaling. 

This episode is about making journaling easier, more playful, more expressive, and more you.

Another way to learn about yourself without rules and without pressure. 

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is all about choosing a Word of the Year (WOTY), a practice I have done for 7 years and why it can be even more powerful than setting a long list of goals.

I walk you through how a WOTY has helped me stay centered when goals feel overwhelming, and why a word gives you something to come back to every day. Goals can feel scattered. A word brings focus.

I share the story of how the word ease first entered my life (and eventually became my word for life), and why choosing a word can feel both exciting and intimidating. 

We talk about how:

• A word can hold all your goals inside it
• Thinking about your word helps you embody the word
• Choosing a word helps you understand who you get to be to have what you want (be do have)
• A word works like tuning into a radio station, what you listen to, you start to believe
• Over time, you step into the identity of that word without forcing it

I also explain how to extract your word from reflection by looking at what last year taught you, where you struggled, what you wanted more of, and where you may have abandoned yourself. 

This episode will help you choose a word that guides your year without pressure.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is a reminder to slow down and remember what a gift dance really is.

We talk about gifts in all forms the obvious ones, the unexpected ones, and the quiet ones we forget to name. The gift of being able to move. The gift of returning to dance. The gift of music. The gift of your body showing up for you today. And the deeper idea that you are the gift, whether or not you fully believe that yet.

I explore how dance helps shift imposter syndrome, builds gratitude for the body you’re in, and reminds you that showing up matters more than expectations. When you dance with gratitude instead of pressure, you experience more connection, more joy, and a completely different class.

We also talk about how dance gives more than we can always see, confidence, perspective, resilience, creativity, and the ability to pivot when life changes. Dance creates memories, keeps us present in this moment in time, and gives us a place to return to ourselves again and again.

If you’ve been feeling disconnected, hard on your body, or forgetting why you dance in the first place, this episode is an invitation to remember.

Show up with gratitude. Let go of expectation. And allow dance to give you more than you knew you needed.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

In this episode, we talk about how reflection becomes a tool for self-trust instead of self-judgment. I walk you through how to reflect in a way that makes you your own biggest cheerleader.

I share how to write thoughts down without judgment, how to process what comes up in a way that feels supportive.

You’ll hear some of my own reflections as examples, plus flexible end-of-year questions you can pick and choose from, including:

• What you’re grateful for

• Your wins and celebrations

• What you overcame

• Where you improved

• What surprised you

• What you’re working toward next

I also talk about why reflection can look different depending on the season. December reflection, January reflection, quarterly check-ins, and even birthday reflections, there is no single timeline, no wrong way, and no right way.... just a way that works for you. 

Reflection gives you data, not judgment. It grounds you, helps you stop comparing, and gently points you toward what you want more of in the year ahead.

This episode is an invitation to close the year with completion, clarity, and kindness, and to remember that reflection isn’t about fixing yourself… it’s about understanding yourself.

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

In this episode, I teach you my favorite strategies for setting goals and staying on track for the year. I briefly go over how I do my reflection at the end of the year, choose my word of the year, how I break up my year into quarters (90 day sprints), and  how I achieve gigantic goals with this small trick and shift. 

When review goals and how to differentiate between a goal that you want, and a goal that you feel like you should have. 

We accept that the goals we want can sometimes take time and how we make adjustments in our lives because of this. 

Goals and reflections are maps to our lives.  We learn from reflection to know what we want more of and then when we work on our goals we are taught what we love and appreciate and, again, want more of. 

If goal setting usually feels heavy, pressurized, or like another thing you’re already behind on. This episode is here to soften that. This is about clarity, not perfection.

Enjoy this very realistic approach to goal setting with some inspiration from Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters

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Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio

This episode is about creating a ritual around the thing you say you want to do... in this case, dance.

When you don’t do it, the only person you’re really screwing over… is you.

I talk about how ritual turns discipline into something that actually feels good. The makeup you do before class, the stretch that signals “we’re doing this.” The playlist, the snack, the little pre-dance routine that makes it feel special instead of forced. When it’s built into your schedule and treated like a non-negotiable, you stop debating it and you show up.

We also talk about something people don’t love to admit: sometimes the thing you really want to do is exhausting. And that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Sometimes you get to grow an appreciation for the effort first, before the ease shows up. Loving something doesn’t always feel light, sometimes it feels like choosing it anyway and letting your capacity build over time.

I also call out how talented we are at making excuses. We’re creative. We’re convincing. And we’re really good at talking ourselves out of the very thing that would make us feel better.

This episode helps you notice when that’s happening, without shame, and helps you design a system that makes excuses unnecessary.

We also get into why one schedule will never work all the time. I walk you through different schedules you can rotate through depending on your season/day/or the kind of week you are having:

• your “I’m on it” schedule
• your low-energy / period schedule
• your I need more energy schedule
• your social / summer / transition schedule

Using the wheel of life, we zoom out and remember you’re more than just work, especially when work is the thing getting in the way of everything else you love.

This episode is your reminder that consistency doesn’t come from willpower.

It comes from designing your life so the things you want actually fit inside it  even when they’re hard, even when they’re tiring, even when excuses feel easier.

Because if it matters to you… it deserves a ritual.

Follow:

Krissy: @krissyphillipino

KDFSTUDIO: @kdfstudio