What, How, and Why by Zo Carroll

With Thanksgiving being right around the corner, I hope that all of you will have the opportunity to spend the day with friends and loved ones. Eat hearty, laugh and maybe get a little dancing in as well. Remember that TSDC will be closed on Thanksgiving. We’ll pick up the action again in December.

 

Upcoming Events

  • Speaking of December, it’s time to purchase your ticket for our fabulous Christmas party which will take place Saturday, December 6th at Shall We Dance. Break out your fancy clothes and prepare to have a blast. This is a catered event (by Meatheads Catering) and we still keep ticket prices extremely low. Only $10 for members and $15 for non-members if tickets are purchased by November 20th. After November 20th, tickets will be priced at $20/$25 dollars. Take advantage of our Early Bird pricing!

 

  • Get ready for another great TSDC workshop when we bring in National West Coast Swing Champion-Tara Trafzer on February 5, 2015. You won’t want to miss out on this event. It’s bound to be a blast!

 

  • 2-day intensive with National West Coast Swing Champions-Myles and Tessa (Cunningham) Munroe, Friday & Saturday, April 17-18. Man I can hardly wait to attend this! Attendance will be limited to only 20 dancers (with an even number of leaders and followers). Ticket prices will probably be $100-$120 per dancer. If you want to see your dancing soar to new heights, you’ll definitely want to get in on this BIG I will let you know when tickets go on sale and any other details on this upcoming event, as those details unfold.

 

The coming of a new year is a great time for reflection. It gives us the opportunity to view our lives as we have lived them up until this moment. The coming of a new year is also a time when many people begin to set new goals or reset old ones. Of course, it doesn’t take the coming of a new year to do either reflection or goal setting. Some people make a habit of doing both on a daily basis which is a really cool thing to do.

If you’re addicted to WCS like I am, you think about it on a daily basis. You probably reflect on where you are in this dance and want to get better at it. If you’re like me, you may find that at times making progress can be frustrating and seemingly overwhelming. I feel your pain. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Right?

Here’s a thought. How about picking one thing you’d like to improve in your WCS during these last few days of 2014. It doesn’t matter what it is. The choice is up to you. Maybe you want to learn to do better turns, or have better foot work, or come up with a new anchor instead of doing the same old thing time and time again. Again, what you want to improve is up to you.

Next, figure out how you’ll go about improving. Will you watch WCS videos for ideas or will you hire a coach or will you simply ask a better dancer to help you out? Sometimes Mary and I will see a cool move on a video that we want to learn. We’ll usually try to figure it out by working on it in our living room. If we need more help, we’ll show the move to our dance coach (Wendy Miller), get some pointers and then perfect the move at home. How you want to go about it is up to you. Do what works for you.

Normally in goal setting, why you want to achieve something is the most important factor. It’s been said that if you have a big enough reason for wanting to do something, you will figure out the- what and the how. Why you want to do it doesn’t matter to anyone except you. Maybe you want to be a top-notch social dancer, who’s at the top of everyone’s list to dance with. Maybe you want to be that awesome competitive dancer, who tears up the competition floor and takes home trophies and envelopes full of cash. Perhaps you want to be both. Just go for it!

The power of reflection and goal setting can be a strong ally in you becoming a better WCS dancer. If you know what you want, how you’re going to achieve it, and have a strong enough reason why you want it, nothing can stop you! Now, go make it happen.