The Long Road Ahead

Spain was such a whirlwind of experiences, that I came back to California thinking I had lived three lifetimes already. It was almost as if I was one of those characters who disappeared into a magical land, came back thinking years had passed and for everyone else, it was 10 minutes. Even though I had managed to teach my Worldanz classes in Spain, I still only had about 6 months of dance experience under my belt, so I still had a very long way to go. After all, I'm not writing about my experiences to explain how easy my journey has been, I'm here to tell about the process.

My friend was generous enough to give me one of her classes at the gym where she was teaching and where I had first started coming to her classes. I realized very quickly that building my classes and being a successful teacher didn't just mean showing up every week on time. It also meant putting in the time every week to practice the dances I was teaching, training myself to be more fit and strong so I could make it through a class without getting light headed, and not taking it personally if only one person showed up to to my class. The most crucial thing I realized during all of this was that I still had very far to go as a DANCER, so as a TEACHER I had double the road ahead of me.

I learned this the hard way by making all the mistakes I possibly could that first year of teaching. I have to be honest and say that back then, part of me thought I had already learned what I needed to; an easy mistake to make as a beginner. I would show up up not having practiced any of the dances I was supposed to lead, and still lacked a lot of the technique that I was teaching other people. I got so ahead of myself, in fact, that my teacher had to have a heart to heart with me about seriously changing my tune if I was to continue teaching and working with her.

The thought of not being able to do what I has set out to do when this all started, just wasn't an option, which means I had to completely rework my whole approach, and begin to put the time in to what was about to become a lifetime practice. I very soon started religiously attending almost any technique class I could in my small town. I took Afro-Haitian, Senegalese, Afro-Brazilian, jazz, and ballet on a regular basis, and was the first to sign up for any workshop hosted by a master teacher passing through. I started taking aerial dance and circus classes to strengthen my body, and yoga to work on my flexibility. I would wake up at 6 every morning, get ready for work, work all day, then immediately race to classes at night. My weekends were full of practices and rehearsals, and my evenings at home were basically non-existent. My pure exhaustion at times was only coupled by our exhilaration because I could feel myself improving every minute. Going from someone who, at 20, couldn't do a push up, definitely couldn't touch their toes, and could barely follow a routine in a technique class, to someone at 25, who could do all this things , and more, was only accomplished by my pure dedication and drive to get better.

While the process towards self-improvement that I went through in Santa Cruz completely served me in the time I needed it, I soon realized that I was outgrowing the small town. I started hitting a wall with both my physical training in aerial, and my technique training, at times feeling bored and unsatisfied. Being 25 and working an office job where everyone around me was married with kids made me feel restless, and consumed by so many thoughts that mostly were along the lines of "Is THIS going to be my LIFE, for the next 40 or 50 years?!

I dwelled in this place for months deciding what to do. I mean I was 25, I still had so many options of where I could go and what I could do. I debated saving to go to professional circus school, debated moving to New York to full dedicate myself to my dance training, and also toyed with the idea of moving back to San Diego to be closer to family and get a different experience in a big city. The answer eventually came from a spirited conversation between a friend of mine and I after a late night training session. The answer was....... Mexico!

In the time both of us had been training aerial, we had a visiting coach that would come up from Mexico, and basically condition us so hard we couldn't walk or squat down for 3 days straight. He was a champion of perfect technique, and stressed the idea that in order to be successful at aerial, you had to be strong; not 10 push ups in a row strong, but more like 20 pull ups and a back flip strong. He had made the offer to come train with him in Mexico (for cheap) the previous time he had visited. Now that we were both in a place to make a big change, we took him up on his offer, and made plans for the next big move. For me, this wasn't just a chance to "level up" my aerial training, it was an opportunity to make my desire of being a full time artist and athlete, a reality.