I began my life as a dancer at about the age of sixteen. I’m sure that I danced before then, but that’s my earliest memory. At the age of fifty-four I still consider myself a dancer, even though I haven’t been on a stage in over thirty years. I’ve had many other creative outlets, some of them I was well paid for and those are probably the one’s that most of my family and friends remember me for. But I danced through those as well.
Oh yes, there is technique and discipline involved, but you aren’t really dancing (or singing, or painting, or running that business, or writing that blog) that connects with someone else unless you are doing it artistically.The great artists give a piece of themselves, they open up to allow you to feel what their world is all about. I have tried to bring that sense of artful living to all aspects of my life. I may not always soar, certainly there are moments (or days & weeks) when I get caught up in the drudgery and forget who I am. Then it comes. The surge from within when I hear a song and I feel the muscle movement as though I were dancing. My heart pouring into a post that let’s me give a piece of my self. You know that feeling.
How do you bring that out?
Give yourself permission to be who you are. You are the only one who is qualified to be you. Taking the dog for a walk, washing dishes, during that staff meeting – bring your inner artist to each them and eventually you will be connecting much more often. If you don’t think of yourself as being creative STOP. The difference between the times that I’ve lived artfully and the times that I have just trudged along is that I’ve seen myself differently. Act “as if.” It’s been proven that if you act “as if” you are something you will become that (I learned that when I transitioned from working in the arts world to the business world and it really helped). This new perspective will open up avenues that you never knew even existed. Begin NOW (there is no other time), let right now be your starting point. You ARE a “fill in the blank.” It’s time to connect with your inner dancer.
What kind of an artist are you?
“Work like you don’t need money, Love like you’ve never been hurt, And dance like no one is watching.”
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