My Improvisational Dance Video

Naturebound1

Naturebound1

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Because I have shared this elsewhere, I thought I might as well share it here too, since I am trying to learn to appreciate my body more. :) A week ago I went to the fitness center at 3:30am to film myself doing some natural improvisational dance. I love dancing but have not taken a dance class in 24 years (aside from a little zumba and yoga). I was a dance major at Ohio State University in the early 90s, and a student of Columbus City ballet before that. I also danced at a performing arts high school where I was a student for several years. Dancing will always be in my blood. I had quit for over two decades due to personal health issues and battling mental illness. More recently I took it up again.

There is no choreography or planning in this, so there is a lot of repetition, mistakes, and me looking at the mirror lol. Next time I will face away from the mirror. I also added the music later as I only had access to my mp3 while dancing, no boombox. I hope you enjoy it! I am off soon to go up north and stay at a hotel and do some snowshoeing. Sort of a mid winter vacation.

 
I just changed the music in the first video but it's being processed so we shall see what happens. :/
 
Physical exercise is a great thing, physical exercise which is also art takes it to a whole new level! Though, judging by the feedback so far, I guess improvisational dance isn't this crowd's thing so much :) That may well be the case in wider society as well, but I hope you won't let that stop you!

I think the only "improvisational dance" I've done were some very silly and alcohol-boosted dance moves back in the day, on my home town's dance floors, accompanied by "that sweet sound everyone likes" kind of music. I think I earned the nick name "Peter Pan" for a while ...! (Glad that phase of my life is over!)
 
I can only view the one without music and it's awesome. Sadly, I am not very graceful. But I love freestyle dancing to rock n roll.

Guess you're lucky cell phones didn't have video capability back in the day, huh, IS? I would have liked to see Peter Pan in action, haha. :D
 
Thanks guys! I am on vacation out of town so I will have to wait til I get home to fix the second video. :/ I think that is my better one.

As far as lack of responses, I can understand as I am still fairly new to this forum and maybe I got a little too personal too fast. I was overly enthusiastic about doing this project. I hadn't taken a ballet/modern dance class in almost 24 years due to battling mental/physical illness for a long time. I put my love of dancing on the back burner. Over the last few years as I have gotten healthier, I have resparked that love and have been playing around with it some. It is more than physical activity for me, it is an art, a form of self expression, a way of healing and appreciating my body again, or at least accepting it on some level. I still cringe when I look at the videos, see such an imperfect body, terrible technique lol, self consciousness. But I also see talent, potential, strength, courage, and breakthrough moments where I forget these imperfections and lose myself in my art for a few seconds. Maybe sharing it with others is a way to gauge if others see the same. But that's putting a lot of responsibility and trust in others who may not share my same enthusiasm. Then again, lack of response might just be because the second video isn't working and the first has no music.

I hope in the future to do some choreography centering around animal rights, or healing from cancer (I code for chemotherapy patients). I want my dancing to be a vehicle for ideas and social justice too. and maybe even add in some writing if I can figure out how to read my poetry in place of music.

Thanks again for watching! Maybe I will stick to safer venues of sharing my dancing until I am more comfortable with it and improve my dancing and video capabilities lol.
 
Definitely smaller. I think we are just so comfortable with each other, at this point, that we don't think anything of ignoring each other...kind of like real life, with family, hahahahaha.

My issue with responding, most times, is doing it from my phone. I hate it. So I avoid it unless I'm really in the mood or really, really bored. Then I force myself. I realized the reason I'm hardly on my desktop is because my cats are so annoying, lol.
 
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I was also blocked from watching the first video. But I liked the second. The only dancing I've done was modern Western square dancing, back in the '80s. Yeehaw!

Now I'm remembering a college classmate who was vegetarian and also enthusiastic about dance, although I never saw her dance- we talked about it a bit. I haven't seen her since we graduated back in the '70s....
 
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I was blocked from your first video also.

I'm envious of your grace in movement. I've always been awkward and self conscious about how I move. The only form of movement that comes "naturally" to me are fine motor movements. I've always sucked at sports, and trying to do anything physical in conjunction with music...well, that's just not going to happen for me.

I do love watching improvisational dance. Thank you for sharing, and I hope you continue to do so.
 
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Last night when I got home from vacation I redid the video with all different music and re uploaded it to YouTube. So here is the newer version that you can hopefully all see. As I said earlier, it is a long video, but I think the last four minutes or so are when I finally started to let go of some of my self consciousness and open up with expression, and just got more used to the camera rolling. So if you skip through some, skip to that part lol.

 
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Tom said:
I was also blocked from watching the first video. But I liked the second. The only dancing I've done was modern Western square dancing, back in the '80s. Yeehaw!

Now I'm remembering a college classmate who was vegetarian and also enthusiastic about dance, although I never saw her dance- we talked about it a bit. I haven't seen her since we graduated back in the '70s....
Click to expand...

LOL, nothing wrong with square dancing! :)

I feel like I have so much more energy to dance as a vegan than many years ago when I was an omnivore. Of course, everything is different now so it would be like comparing apples and oranges. I used to take a full college load, plus three hours of dancing everyday, and two jobs my first year of college when I was 19. Now I just have a full time job and an hour or two of workouts per day (dancing included). And I bike part of the year. But I am so much older than I was then. And my job is intense and involves far more responsibility and higher stakes than my schooling and the jobs I held back in the early 90s.

I code for cancer patients a lot. Sometimes it gets to me. The pain, the shock, the daily sickness and the financial woes those people go through. Children, elderly, young strong men. No one is immune. I take in suffering in this world like a sponge, and it is very very hard to let go of and block it out sometimes. I feel like I have so much, but I am terrified of losing it. I feel like I am in a battle against time myself, against my own mortality too, my own aging body. I want to dance 24/7, to feel every fiber of my being, ride with the music, feel ALIVE. I want others to feel that life, that energy, that healing flow and letting go. I strive for that myself. Someday I want to choreograph dance for cancer patients, for animals who have never known freedom or been allowed to own their own bodies, or love their children. Dancing is healing, and some days it is all that keeps me going.

Thanks again everyone for the feedback!
 
For someone who hasn't danced for years you are certainly very bendy/flowy! I blame the yoga haha. I enjoyed it, and loved the way you can express yourself. I've just started a dance class for the first time ever (even as a little kid I didn't do any dance) and can't even look at myself in the mirror(I just stare at the instructor) let alone agree for someone to film it. So I'm in admiration of your confidence.

ps. this subforum tends to be quite quiet, don't take it to heart :)

pps. Square dancing looks fun but I don't think I could put up with Country and Western for that long haha.
 
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That's awesome that you are taking a dance class Liz! It's never too late to start! What kind of dance class are you taking?

ps Thanks so much for the very nice compliment!
 
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