Supporting your child to grow from Eisteddfods

Eisteddfods can be an amazingly heart-warming experience seeing our children up on stage under those lights being their brilliant selves. It can also be one of disappointment and potential heartbreak. Having run my own school for over 15 years, and being a mother of an eisteddfod goer and coaching groups and soloists for competitions, I know all about eisteddfods from the perspective of being a student, being a daughter of a dance mum,  being a teacher and a parent, the happy times and the sad times.

A huge element of eisteddfods is the mother daughter relationship and will be before and after the dance. The way we as mothers filter the world of competition to our children will affect the way they see themselves in relation to the world for life. I know that as a parent it can be frustrating when you see your child not perform to their best when they have demonstrated countless times how well they can dance. On the other hand it is also very moving when you see your children shine and perform their best on stage. Your reaction and communication to your child after and before their performance is important to be aware of. Playing a positive supportive role for your child in competition work is essential. 

It’s great to win, we all want to, but only one person will every time; that does not mean that the rest are not worthy, talented dancers. Developing a healthy competitive drive in our children is important. As much as they want to place, they also need to learn how to manage emotions when they don’t. This is where parents can help.  This journey is about their development long term, not about short term results. There will always be an ebb and flow in progress and in their life of dance. Here are some tips that I would recommend using to help manage emotions in competitive dancing;

Do Not
• Try not to focus solely on winning or placing– the goal of any performer should be to simply perform to their best and to measure themselves in comparison to their last performance. Comparing your child to other performers is only useful to ensure your child is up to that standard. However, conversations with your child should be more about enjoying the performance, reinforcing the specific corrections that their teacher has given and simply performing to their best.
• Avoid teaching your child. Leave this to the teachers. Believe me! Your teacher knows what they are talking about and what your child is capable of. If you have any suggestions or questions by all means raise them with your teacher. Your child needs you to be their loving supporter (not their teacher).  
• Do not compare your child to their peers. They will do that enough for themselves. If your child discusses their friends ability, shift focus by encouraging your child to focus on their own strengths and weaknesses and teachers corrections. Not on their friends journey of dance.

DOs
• Encourage and expect your child to practise regularly at home. Dance is also a financial investment for you and if they are an eisteddfod student they should want to practise at home to better themselves and perfect their routines. If they lack the motivation, then really, they should not be attempting to dance at competition level. Help your child create a home practise roster and like their school work, make them accountable by ensuring they stick to it.
• Be honest with your child in a constructive non emotional way. You will learn more about dance and technique by becoming an eisteddfod mum (attending comps), so by all means give your feedback but please refrain from overstepping your role and relationship with your child in relation to dancing. It is never worth it and can be damaging in the long run.
• If your teachers cannot make it to watch your child perform always let them know how your child danced after.  We teachers want to know how your child danced more so than how they placed. We are focused on the long term development, not the short term.

Helping your child become a responsible performer
After your child dances the first thing they are going to want to do is ask you how they went. Before you reply I want you to firstly ask your child how they think they went and how they feel. It is important that they self-assess before they see their competitors and before they see your face. Please work with them in developing this process as a lifelong habit - self assess as objectively as possible after they get off stage and before they see your face. They should be able to answer the following;
Where did I feel strong?
Where did I feel not so strong?
Where did I excel?
Where could I have done better?
What mark out of 10 do I give myself?
After they tell you how they felt and how they think they went in comparison to their last performance, then you can give them feedback on how they looked. Keep your feedback constructive, light and positive. Always remember that your long term relationship with your child is more important than an isolated measurement of their performance.

Eisteddfods can be an empowering experience. It’s all in your perception and approach. Have fun, work hard remember why we dance in the first place… for the love of it!

Photo of Kate with her daughter

Progressing Ballet Technique

I am a dancer.  I believe that we learn by practice.  Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living.... In each it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit.  One becomes in some area an athlete of God.  ~Martha Graham, c.1953

When I was fifteen years old I had the pleasure of training full-time under Marie Walton- Mahon. Marie's classical coaching is world class and it is an honour to share her new program Progressing Ballet Technique.  

Progressing Ballet Technique is an amazing tool that you can use at home or in the studio, enabling you to integrate and strengthen muscle memory, increase improvement rate and strength.

Progressing Ballet Technique: By Marie Walton-Mahon

A program developed for students 11 years and above to understand the depth of training muscle memory in achieving their personal best in ballet training.

Marie has been known for her innovative teaching skills for well over past 3 decades, she first experimented with the use of “muscle memory” to improve the students understanding of core stability, weight placement and alignment for the past 10 years. After continual success in monitoring the students’ progress in these integral areas of ballet training she decided to record her program to share with teachers and students.

Chapter 1 - In depth technique of the ‘how’ and “why” for these exercises demonstrated by students at the National College of Dance

Chapter 2 - Class students at Teresa Johnson School of Ballet – with Grant Kennedy.

Marie Walton - Mahon

Former Principal of the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy

Founder and former Artistic Director of the National College of Dance

Royal Academy of Dance Dual Vocational Examiner

Registered Teacher and Life Member

Continuing Professional Development Tutor for the Faculty of Education

Freelance Faculty for Student Courses, Classes and Events

Please click on the dancer above or this link to purchase this amazing DVD

www.progressingballettechnique.com

PatternDynamics

Human beings have always been taken with the idea of understanding how our relationships with each other work and how we can improve them. That’s why, when I was asked earlier this year to choreograph movements for ‘PatternDynamics’, I was drawn to the task.

So what’s PatternDynamics? Good question – I wondered that myself. And so I spoke at length with Tim Winton, the creator of the concept, and did a lot of reading on the subject. Here’s my (very brief) summary.

Tim created PatternDynamics as a way of helping us to understand and improve the way we relate to and work with each other based on patterns in nature. Let’s go back a step.

The way we interact with our friends, families and colleagues is informed by the dynamic (that is, always shifting) relationships we have with those people. In other words, every relationship has a certain energy (or dynamism) about it. This energy is created by our personal and social expectations of that relationship, as well as our history within that relationship. Not only that, but if we observe our relationships for long enough we can see that there are very definite patterns of behaviour that we engage in within our relationships.

Patterns are always occurring in the natural environment. Their repetitive nature means that they often become engrained. The same happens in human relationships, with the difference being that while patterns in nature tend to evolve over time and have clear benefits; patterns in human relationships can sometimes work against us. For example, we can become entrenched in our opposition to certain people or possibilities without clearly understanding why and often to our own detriment. In developing PatternDynamics, Tim was keen to explore why this happened, as well as to discover ways of identifying these patterns and then assessing whether or not they were productive or counterproductive. He also wanted to create a symbolic language that would, through pictures, represent what was happening within relationships at any given time. By developing these symbols, Tim hoped to give people not only a pictorial representation of where they were currently at, but also a symbol that helped them understand how best to move forward.

When Tim asked me to develop a way of implementing the movement aspect of PatternDynamics, I was excited. I was especially intrigued by the possibilities of using PatternDynamics to help resolve conflict and to help build unity and creativity.Tim had already thought about the fact that each movement needed to flow from one aspect of PatternDynamics to the next; the trick was that the movements needed to be simple enough so that they were accessible to everyone while at the same time incorporating breathing techniques anda musical beat.

Tim has a strong background in martial arts, but (and I know he won’t mind me saying this) he is not the most naturally rhythmical of people (which I soon discovered). Being a dancer myself, and choreographing on a daily basis, I was challenged by the need to develop an accessible series of movements to music without straying into overly creative territory; that is, I had to fight the urge to choreograph something artistically and creatively complex and focus more on making it accessible to all people, especially non-dancers. The focus had to be on the creation of a sequence of movements and breaths that would embody the flows identified in PatternDynamics and be accessible to everyone. Clearly an elaborate movement sequence would miss the point of the principals that Tim and his team were teaching. Likewise, the use of complex music would risk overwhelming participants, leaving them despondent and disconnected from the principals they had learned.

In the end, I created a movement sequence made up of 4 x 8 beats per pattern. Movements were very simple and incorporated mainly arms (to make it as accessible as possible to the majority of people) and breathing patterns. The final pattern, which represented ‘Source’ and is a crucial central element in PatternDynamics, simply focuses on the breathing and is about the participant being silent, still and connecting to the whole.

I knew that the movement aspect of PatternDynamics could be a little confronting for some participants (especially those who already have an aversion to dance), and so I was keen to make those movements as non-threatening as possible while still being representative of the dynamics identified in PatternDynamics. I was also aware that Tim would be in the perfect position to explain and teach the movement aspect in a way that participants would really enjoy this relaxing yet energising ending to a thought provoking and empowering day.

In all, I found this experience to be an exciting, challenging and informative one, and one that certainly opened my eyes to new possibilities in terms of improving human relationships and organisational processes.

If you’re at all interested in finding out more about PatternDynamics, I would encourage you to visit Tim’s website at http://www.patterndynamics.com.au  

The Dancers Perfectionism

Stretch your knees, shoulders down, tail in, tummy in… oh that’s right it’s 2012… I mean lengthen both sides of the body equally… and now smile! I don’t know about you, but my experience of being a dancer and now a teacher has been a journey. Excuse the cliché, but I live in Byron Bay and maybe we use the word “Journey” too much. Actually I am personally sick of that ambiguous word which alludes to hardships coated in a deep profound yet positive (and again abstract) self discovery. However, I will be more direct in my statement and boldly say that the life of a dancer is a journey of perfectionism. From a young age we are trained to master technique. Our teachers constantly remind us of our dance corrections to bodily imperfections. Their voices are permanently marked in our brains and echoed through time. I can still hear my teacher ….“Kate pull up your knobby knees!” My knees were the bane of my dance existence and the more experienced I became, the better I was at hiding my hereditary shameful knobs by extending my leg line.

In a way, we dancers are like magicians. We create an illusion of complete effortless, visual athletic beauty for our audience and yet behind the scenes our feet bleed and our bodies ache. However, our success depends on how much we transcend such pain and show godliness on the stage at all times, no matter what! We become conditioned to perfectionism in our craft and are praised for it professionally, but what can happen when perfectionism seeps into our other areas of our life?

Perfectionism has both positive and negative aspects. However, when we require our life to be “perfect” like the illusions we create on the stage, we can set ourselves up for inflexibility in our thinking. When an ideal outcome is not achieved we can change our perception, creatively respond and change our approach, alter our expectations or shift direction and adapt to the situation at hand which is a positive approach for both our mental health and wellbeing. However, if we are inflexible in our thinking and perceive an intended outcome in a black and white fashion, then we can suffer mentally, physically and creatively when our ideals are not met. In some cases this can lead to depression, anxiety and other mentally and emotionally limiting states of experience.

Some examples of perfectionism out of control may include;

• Expecting others to fulfill your every need and unmet ideals

• Black and white thinking and using exclusive terms in your language such as; always, never, must, mustn’t, have to, have not

• Separating your persona into one for the public display and one for your private life to extreme degrees

• Being overly critical towards yourself and others

If you find that you fall into the category of seeking perfectionism in your day to day life to extreme levels that it affects your relationships and general wellbeing, then seek out a health care professional. Alternatively one of our consultants may be able to assist with life balance tips.

5 Tips to ensure for a Healthy Mind for the Perfectionist

• It’s not personal! Learning to separate your craft from who you are is healthy. You are not what you do. Therefore receiving feedback about your dance should be done in an objective fashion with the premise always being that YOU are not what you do. Learning some basic meditation and breathing exercises for relaxation and letting go will be a great help.

• Accept people for who they are instead of what you wish they were (this does not mean accepting disrespectful behavior) understanding that everyone is different and that often we have to adapt to those differences if we want a relationship with them

• Accept that not everything will happen overnight and your way. Create goals that are congruent to your values and be sure to include realistic timeframes. Goals that are created in too short a time frame can create unnecessary anxiety and even burnout.

• Pat yourself on the back and write down all the positive achievements in your life so far. To you they may not seem brilliant, but believe me, they are! Perfectionists are much more critical of themselves, so we need to remember to enjoy the ride.

• Take up a hobby or recreational exercise that is for enjoyment purposes only.

 

Enjoy your journey in dance and know that it is a journey that will unfold each step at a time.

Life's A Cruise - Interview with Jeffrey Trinidad

Last December, I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Rhapsody of The Seas. The 10 day cruise was very relaxing and just what my family and I needed after a hectic 2011.

During the day, we relaxed, swam, and visited some of the many islands surrounding New Caledonia and Vanuatu. In the evenings, we were treated to world class meals and spectacular shows. The entertainment comprised of a themed variety event every night, with music courtesy of the Rhapsody of The Seas Orchestra, and dazzling performances from scores of dancers and singers. It was during the first evening show that I discovered an especially remarkable young dancer by the name of Jeffrey Trinidad. As I watched Jeffrey glide through the air so effortlessly and with such magnetism, I thought it would be nice for aspiring and professional dance readers to learn more about the life of this dancer at sea.

Name: Jeffrey Trinidad

Age: 21

How long have you been dancing? Eleven years! I started when I was ten years old in a small suburban school in Melbourne.

What inspired you to start dancing? I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson. My parents’ love of the star influenced me and soon enough I wanted to be like him, to dance like him. Eventually my mum encouraged me to join a dance school. At first I refused, but after watching the first class I decided that I wanted to join and ever since then I’ve not been able to stop.

You have supportive dance parents? Yes I do. However, coming from a traditional Asian family they wanted me to do something more with my life than dance. They didn’t mind me dancing but they wanted me to have a “normal” job. It took some convincing, but they came around and now they are happy seeing me do what I love (and getting paid for it).

Where did you train during your formative years? Isolation Performing Arts Studio in Tullamarine. I also trained full time at this school for one year. The principal of that school, Kerrie Power, then encouraged me to move on to professional level.

When did you start participating in dance auditions? I started auditioning for random dance shows and events half way through my full-time training. It wasn’t until my first year out of full-time training that I started getting work. I auditioned for Royal Caribbean Cruises three times and it wasn’t until the third time that I got the contract. I am currently on my third contract with Royal Caribbean.

After your first audition, when you found out you didn’t get in, how did you feel and how did you deal with that? At first it was hard to accept that I wasn’t getting the gig. Having to go through the whole competition life, and being the token dance boy where I trained, I was spoon fed a lot. So the reality of a dancer’s life was a shock at first. It breaks your ego and you have to finally come to terms with the fact that you are not the best dancer and that you still have a lot to learn. So, ever since that first audition, I’ve been of the belief that “I am not the best dancer and there will always be someone better than me, but I am going to give my absolute best!’

What do you advise young dancers with regard to auditions? Don’t give up! If you really want something, put it out there and show the casting panel your best! Don’t ever just mark out the steps. Make sure you give 100% and keep going. You will get there.

What is it like having a job on a cruise ship? It’s great. Your get paid to travel and with Royal Caribbean you are contracted for dance entertainment only, meaning I don’t have to do any other cruise staff duties. This enables me to concentrate on my job and give my best. I’m living the dream.

How often during your busy schedule of work and travel are you able to visit your family? Sometimes we can have a few months off so I can visit family and friends during those times.

Do you have an agent? Yes, I am with Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance.

Growing up as a male dancer, what was High School like for you? High School was tough. It was hard being the male dancer that got picked on and called names. However, these experiences made me more comfortable within myself. Bullying is always a reflection of the bullies’ insecurities. I am probably a much happier person now than they are.

What other dance goals do you have? I would love to be in the musical Cats! I really want to be Mr Mistoffelees!

Thank you to Jeffrey for sharing his world of dance with us. We wish him all the best and hope to see him as Mr Mistoffelees very soon!

Quiet Parenting

Quiet Parenting - online parent courses
Learn practical, easy-to-use strategies to improve your relationship with your children. Your family life will become more peaceful and less stressful. Best of all, you will be teaching your children important life-long skills to help them to regulate themselves and manage their emotions.
Join a small group of parents and an online presenter for an online session each week for four weeks. $99 Special booking code SAV-QP
Quiet Parenting courses start soon – book now!
www.parentschool.com.au, 1300 130 700, info@parentschool.com.au.

AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ‘LIVE’ ONLINE PARENT EDUCATION COURSES
A psychologist and an aircraft engineer have teamed‐up to design Australia’s first ‘live’ online parent education program. Michael Hawton and Brett Drinkwater – with their respective spouses – have seven children between them. Hawton has over 20 years experience and his company has trained over 4,500 family services workers in parent education nationally and Drinkwater is an e‐learning expert, who has experience in the corporate sector.

• Quiet Parenting is an engaging interactive e‐course, taught to parents as a “real‐time” parent education program – of groups of up to 20 parents.

• The Australian Institute of Family Studies has found support for this view in its recent surveys of parents, finding that over a quarter of parents would prefer to learn about parenting online.

• With the arrival of the National Broadband Network in Australia, the time is ripe for expanding into this type of format for online parent education. Quiet Parenting equips parents with easy‐to‐use strategies they can apply immediately. Family life will become more peaceful and parents will feel less stressed. Best of all, over the longer term, parents will be teaching their children important life‐long skills that will help them to selfregulate.

As the first in a number of courses, Quiet Parenting is aimed at helping parents of 2‐12 year olds to manage their children’s difficult behaviour – quietly. The program is tailored to teach parents practical strategies for dealing with children’s difficult behaviour, without having to raise their voices to gain cooperation from their children. Two other parent courses – one for parents of teenagers ‐ are in development, and Indigenous and on‐English‐speaking parent’s online versions of the Quiet Parenting program are to be released in 2012.

Held as both morning and evening programs, Quiet Parenting courses begin, nationwide, in October 2011 and easy enrolment is found at http://www.parentschool.com.au/ Michael Hawton, MAPS has created the Quiet Parenting for parents who would find it difficult to attend face‐to‐face courses. “The program is easy to sit‐down to after getting the kids off to school in the morning or after they go to bed in the evening. We believe that this format will be particularly useful for parents from rural areas who would have less access to parent education classes. It would also be useful to parents in city environments, where parents find it difficult to go out again after a hard day’s work,” Hawton said.

Quiet Parenting courses are facilitated by parenting experts, who are also virtual classroom leaders, so parents have the benefit of online education but also opportunities to exchange ideas in a “real‐time” learning environment. According to Drinkwater, “the program is full of interactive learning experiences. Parents meet online for one‐and‐a‐half‐hours sessions, once a week over four weeks. They’ll learn lots of great new skills and gain knowledge to better understand their children’s behaviour by way of expert commentary, whiteboard exercises, slideshows, videos, work sheets, and group activities – all aimed at making this type of learning as engaging as possible”. “The latest findings in neuroscience show that the brain is somewhat plastic and that connections in the brain can improve in response to repeated behaviour. Parents who give their
children practice at ‘toggling’ (or switching) between their old reactive brain and new rational brain, will help their children to become better at self‐regulating”, Hawton said.

Many people say that interactive e‐learning is more suited to a better learning compared to non‐interactive parenting online courses in Australia, because parents learn together and have the opportunity of exchanging ideas and experiences.

Written by a psychologist, but less expensive than seeing a psychologist* on a one to one basis, Quiet Parenting uses internet technology to bring the best of parenting advice within easy reach wherever you live in Australia.
http://www.parentschool.com.au/

* Based on the APS recommended fee

Building Your Team From The Inside out in 2011

Irrespective of the size of your dance school, as soon as you decide to employ or contract staff, the nature of your communication and leadership skills is critical.
Many of us school owners started our schools with a purpose to teach dance our way. We prided ourselves on our creative and technical differences by striving to out do our own training, passing our passion and dreams onto the next generation.

So how do you employ the right staff who will share the vision and ethos you have for your school? How do you convey your standards of practice to your staff and ensure they deliver their best practice? Over the next few months we will be exploring these very topics, but firstly, I will let you in on a secret:

The Pain Story
Every person is motivated by a past pain story! If you want to know how to best inspire your staff, you need to know what motivates them. I have found that often motivation is driven by pain, sugar coated with an inspiring vision of why someone loves to teach. You have your own, I have mine, everybody has a pain story whether they realise it or not.
What is a pain story?

A pain story is an unresolved misperception from the past and if you want your teachers to be the best, you need to know how to weed it out and assist them in transforming their pain story into a power story. For example, for the first four years of owning Dance Dynamics in Byron Bay I was secretly ashamed that I didn’t pursue my dream of being an accomplished ballerina. Instead of focusing on all of the fabulous training and performance experiences I had had, I focused on creating excuses as to why I didn’t achieve that goal. I needed someone to blame in order to feel justified in staying small and not pushing through my own emotional fear of failure.

How does this affect your students? As teachers we not only train the body, we train the mind. Assessing the student’s physical weaknesses and strengths is what we are good at, however as the mind governs the body understanding cognitive thinking patterns of our students will further assist them in achieving their goals. Understanding our own patterns of thinking and learning to transcend limiting patterns (including pain stories) will enable us to become highly effective. So what is your secret pain story? Where do you feel inadequate? Not good enough? If you still don’t know, observe your language for one week and notice where you constantly need to talk yourself up to others or even to yourself in your own head? Where do you put yourself down? Use yourself as the experiment before you begin your team building process. After all, how can you build a team without knowing how to build up yourself?

1. Once you have identified what your pain story is, ask yourself ‘what the benefit is to having that story’? How is it keeping you small? What is it assisting you avoid?

2. See the other side to your story. If you perceived yourself as unsuccessful see where you were/are successful. An emotion is seeing one side of a situation. When you train your mind to see both sides you can turn emotion into purpose and power.

Building your Team Starts With You!
Once you know the pain story and how it limits you and you have flipped your pain into power revisit your dance school goals for 2011. What would you like to achieve for yourself? For your students? For your staff? And for your school? The function of your school is a direct reflection of you. Anything you have not emotionally resolved in your mind and heart will be expressed by means of conflict within your school through your staff, students or parents.
Once you have completed this process on yourself then take your staff through the same questions. Observe their language and behaviours to detect that both are congruent.

Additional questions to ask staff and yourself
1. Why do you most love about teaching?
2. What do you most dislike about teaching?
3. What is your biggest strength as a teacher?
4. What is your biggest weakness as a teacher?
Stay tuned for next month’s issue of Building Your Team From the Inside Out In 2011 –Linking Staff Values.

This article is © copyright to Kate Histon 2011 on behalf of Dance Life Australia. To copy or distribute any part of this article you must first seek permission by the author Kate Histon

More Than The Dream

So you think you can dance? That’s not enough! Do you know you can dance? Still, it’s not enough! The real question is; what are you going to do about it? Not your mum, not your dad, not your teacher, not your agent, not your manager, not your friends - YOU!
With Dance growing to be a strong influential culture on Australian television over the past few years, the dream of becoming a dancer has evoked the hearts and inspiration of many viewers. Dance schools are filling up with aspiring wannabes, some just want to have fun, some want to stand out and some want to be stars! My question to the more serious dancers is this... WHY? The Why factor is what sets you apart from your competitor. If you have a big enough reason WHY you want to achieve your dream then you will have more momentum, energy and persistence to actualise it. It will become more than just feeling special on a stage; it will become a way of life and define who you are as a person.
Talent alone is not enough. Dreaming is one thing but making the dream a reality is a totally different story. Real success, which is the actualisation through achievement of goals and personal self fulfilment, is created from these three powerful dynamics;

1. Dream - Your ability to dream begins with a correct relationship with yourself and your world around you. Self love is the basis for this correct relationship and that is in knowing your strengths and weaknesses and respecting who you are as a person and those around you. These attributes are important to help overcome adversity in your career and in life. Your mental and emotional health derives from your capacity to know, love and respect who you are.

2. Action – Dreaming is not enough yet keeping your dream and passion alive is what motivates you to take action. A goal without enthusiasm remains just that a goal and is unlikely to be achieved. Action propelled by enthusiasm creates momentum, habit and in turn, more action. What can stop people from taking consistent action is FEAR. False Evidence Appearing Real. If this is you, find one of my previous articles on FEAR through this blog to assist you overcome that limiting mindset.

3. Completion – Being persistent in your action steps leads to only one thing... completion! However, completion is not about arriving. It is about the ability to take on the new responsibility that comes with that achieved goal. It is the ability to complete a project then start all over again.
2010 is drawing to a close. Are you where you thought you would be?
What were you goals for 2010? Did you achieve them?
If not, why not? Were your goals realistic? Was the timeframe too short? Did you get distracted? Were you too hard on yourself? Were you too easy on yourself?
If you have not check it out yet, take a look at the Dance Life 2011 online guide for full-time at the link below! There is a lot of information in the guide to help you further develop your talent, mindset and performance ability.

http://www.dancelife.com.au/blogs/entry/DANCELIFE-S-ONLINE-GUIDE-TO-FULL-TIME-COURSES-2011

You CAN DANCE! So how are you going to make it happen?

Breaking old Labels

… You Are What You Think!

A label maker is good for one thing and that is to order chaos through clearly marked identification labels. We put labels on our school books, kitchen items, moving boxes, study desk, storage items, office cupboard etc. This form of categorizing is how we keep control and maintain order in our physical external world making our internal world calmer.

We also put labels on people, places, ideas and ourselves. Some labels are helpful by aiding in identification and status. Other labels can hinder us as people, limiting our innate potential.

Your innate potential is like your own personal bright light and limiting labels are like pieces of mesh covering the brilliance of who you really are. When you have too many limiting labels your own personal light becomes covered with little or no light able to shine through. This affects your self worth, confidence and personal performance ability.

“If you think you can or think you can’t you are right” Henry Ford

How do we identify labels that limit us?

How can we change the way we think?

Labels can be true or false, accurate or inaccurate. Some examples of inaccurate labels are “She hurt my feelings so she is bad” or “my teacher didn’t acknowledge me so they don’t like me”.

Statements that blame others for you not feeling good within yourself are limiting labels. No one is ever responsible for how you feel. When we perceive situations in certain ways that bring out emotion in us and we don’t know how to resolve that emotion, we categorize it by labeling it “good” or “bad”. We then store that labeled baggage in our memory until we are ready to bring it out of storage and change the label.

Here is an example:

Teacher tells student that their technique is messy

Student then assumes that they have “bad” technique and works hard on improving. Instead of focusing on the improvement student continues to focus on the perceived “bad” technique labeling themselves as a dancer with “bad” technique. A more beneficial label would be to label themselves as a student who is diligently mastering dance technique.

Identifying a label you have given yourself that is limiting and negating your self worth is important. As we grow our labels also need to change. Just as we grow out of our clothes, our personal identity is also undergoing constant change and evolving.

How to Identify a Limiting Label?
1) Become aware of your self talk and the emotions that arise.
2) Notice when you are feeling disheartened, sad or disempowered then look at what you were thinking when the negative emotion emerged.

How to Transform a Limiting Label

1) Eliminate absolute terms such as “always” “never” “good” and “bad” as these words are limiting. If you find yourself labeling as “always” being a certain way or statements like “I can never do that step” you have the CHOICE to believe that or CHALLENGE that thought.
2) After you have identified the limiting label (original thought that created the negative emotion) challenge it through quality questions such as;
● Is this really true?
● Where do I demonstrate the opposite trait? (e.g. if you label yourself as not successful - see where you are already successful)
● Do I always do that?

You are responsible for the way you think! You have a choice to choose thought patterns that aid in your evolution as a performer or hinder your progress.

Your Emotions Create Art

Physics 101 - What goes up must come down! Guess what? Your emotions are the same.
A great artist knows how to use their emotional cycles to create works of art such as choreography, productions, music, dance - you name it we all do it! Beethoven had a string of personal muses each time he created a new masterpiece and the depth of his experience included extremes of pain and pleasure; happy and sad is evident in his work. Shakespeare (although married) used the inspiration of human drama and romance to create world famous iconic stories. On the edge of the rational mind and the irrational heart is where the centre of true inspiration lives and as a dancer, choreographer, performer or teacher you need to know this!

The ability to draw upon your personal stories and emotions for art’s sake requires awareness of what it is that motivates you. Everyone will have a painful story that drives them into expressive action. However, when you are unable to separate yourself from your story by letting your story consume you, you can end up internalizing this powerful energy which can depress you to the point where self expression is stifled. When you identify your story as being part of the human story (knowing that you are not alone, yet you are very unique) you identify your personal experience as a gift to humanity. Therefore, to not utilize and draw upon your personal experience and heart’s wisdom to create art is not only a disservice to you, but also to those that you interact with and those who may use your skills and knowledge.

Heartache comes in many forms e.g. romance turned sour, career failure, deceased loved ones, friendship misunderstandings, illness etc, but at its most basic, a heart ache is an unfulfilled or unmet expectation.

The pain of unfulfilled expectations or desires can be very confusing and to state the obvious, painful. Yet there is tremendous power in pain and when we use its energy wisely, pain can become a life changing, a life enhancing and a life enriching experience! Ask yourself; how do you use the power of pain? Do you let it consume you and defeat you? Do you try to quickly fix or resolve your pain? Do you ignore it and “harden up”? Do you eat chocolate? Do you go for a jog? Do you dance? Do you listen to music? What do you do?

Here are a few basic principals to help you transform your pain into creativity that you can channel into your highest value;

1) A basic physics principal is that energy never dies it is only transformed. The same applies to people. When something leaves your life, something else will appear to fill the void.
2) Let yourself FEEL the pain without trying to analyse or resolve it. When you feel the grief, cry it out or express it. Any repressed pain can end up being expressed in your body through illness or injury. Let it out!
3) After you have cried start to identify what specific details you missed about that person; was it that they gave you attention? Was it their eyes? Write down every little detail of what you perceive you miss.
4) Use what you perceived you missed and express it through your highest value; for example choreographers might create a piece about love and loss. Dancers might bring more dynamics into their routines.
5) Identify the benefits of how you have transformed this energy. Does it give you more time to focus on your career? Family? Finances? Fitness? Creativity? Where are you feeling refreshed and enhanced from this transformation?

Your emotions are a part of you helping you to grow and integrate more of yourself into what it is that you love. Feel it, express it, make money from it and do it all over again!

The Resistance Factor

At least 3 times per week I ride my bicycle into Byron Bay. I live 6km out of the town centre and the ride gives me clarity and ideas for my three favorite things within my world of dance - directing my school, writing for Dance Life and my work as a performance enhancement coach. As I was riding this morning I noticed the higher the gear I was in the greater the resistance in my muscles, creating a greater challenge and harder ride. In that moment I could have chosen to let my tired legs win, slow up the bike and simply cruise, or I could step up to the challenge by letting my powerful mind drive the bike and override my tired legs. I chose the latter and when I did this I became capable of riding faster; and boy can I ride fast! I become more focused, alert and centered as my senses become alive and I am more capable of handling the traffic obstacles.

Life provides similar analogies and so does the dance studio. The more we are challenged, the more capable we become of mastering harder choreography and technique but only if we take on the challenge! The more we repeat those challenging steps and create a consistent rhythm the easier they become and we quickly find ourselves ready for a greater challenge. This is how we improve, this is how we grow and this is an important principle in life.

The same principle also applies to the mental and emotional aspects of dance. Today dancers not only need to be dance fit, they need to be emotionally and mentally fit. Your mental and emotional fitness is only strengthened through having a balanced perception of yourself and of the world around you. This enables you to endure set backs, audition rejections and critiquing from your teachers, directors, examiners and adjudicators. It also enables you to humble yourself after the high of the win and get you focused again on the next goal. Your mind and emotions play a major role in your dance life.

I do not necessarily promote “positive thinking” but rather, “balanced thinking”. Balanced thinkers know that for every positive experience there will be a drawback and for every negative experience there will be a benefit. Your world is perfectly balanced with challenge and support, however when you chose to focus on only the negative without the positive or the positive without the negative you become out of balance either stressed or hyped.

So while you are refining your goals for 2010 consider creating goals that will help you grow emotionally and mentally. Some goals maybe;
• Stand at the front of the dance class more often
• Ask your teacher to give you more feedback on your ability and career prospects
• Enter more eisteddfods so you get used to staying focused at competitions
• Audition audition audition!
• Try public speaking

Try something new, anything that will help you to grow out of your current mental and emotional box. Decide to love yourself no matter what the outcome and give yourself permission to fail; it is only through failure that one can discover success!

Appreciating Your Life

It came from nowhere and before the clock hit 10am, last Wednesday became one of those days I will never forget. A day that made me realise how beautiful yet fragile human life is and how strong the human spirit becomes in the midst of trauma.

By 10am I was hit with two different tragic stories that personally shook me to the core. The first phone call answered my questions to the ambulance sirens I heard earlier that day. Our beautiful exchange student who has been living with us for two months, was hit by a van while riding her bike and rushed to hospital fighting for her life. She had left earlier that morning for school waving goodbye with a big beaming smile on her face and twinkle in her eye but she didn’t know that in less than 20mins she would be lying unconscious in the middle of the road.

Half an hour after that call my second eldest sister who lives 700kms south rings me and with a short greeting continues to say “Melissa has just found out she has breast cancer”. Why did Melissa have to be the name of my eldest sister? I heard myself cry and at the same time repeated at least four times the words “are you joking?”

I spent the rest of Wednesday in shock visiting my exchange student in intensive care (after two hospital transfers) while also aching to get on an aeroplane so I could cuddle my sister Melissa. I was not only shattered for my dear sister and friend but also for the simple things in life that I take for granted in my own life.

Tests for both my sister and my exchange student seemed to run simultaneously on the Thursday. While I waited impatiently in the visitors room for the doctors to inform me of the severity of my students head injuries; I also waited for my mother to ring me filling me in on the severity of my sisters cancer.

My sister and my exchange student had never met but what they both share in is sheer determination, persistence, strength and a powerful spirit for life!

Against all odds my exchange student is recovering rapidly after being told how incredibly lucky she is to be alive. My sister’s bravery and positive attitude is now what brings a new tear to my eye.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank these two incredible women for inspiring me and reminding me of the blessings in life once again...

So I ask you - If you experienced a life threatening situation what would matter to you the most? What would you say to those around you? How would you feel about the life you have lived so far? Are you fulfilled? Are you living your life on purpose?

**My sister Melissa has recently launched her first photography exhibition "Adorned" in Newcastle Australia and is planning to take her work to New York next year. Her fine art is very feminine, beautiful and powerful! To view her work visit http://www.melissahiston.com/ and www.livingdoll.net.au It was an amazing experience being one of the feature models in this exhibition -see right;

The Time's in YOUR LIFE!

Recently my school Dance Dynamics in Byron Bay presented our Mid Year Musical Theatre and Dance production called “Time of Your Life”. This was our 25th show in 10years of operation and for anyone who works in the theatre, event management, or business; you will know that Murphy’s Law of “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” applies every time!

After 6months of diligent preparation from our wonderful teachers, students and coordinators the show was coming together very smoothly. In fact, almost too smoothly I noticed at our major rehearsal.
Then the chaos began! Exactly one week before the show one of our main soloists dislocated her knee and with another two main performers managing injuries we were diligently creating a “plan B”.

After plan B was sorted our new drama(s) on the morning of the matinee and evening show were very intense and threatened each show. The special lighting that we ordered was delivered two hours late. At the same time our music decided to not work! We had two hours to solve these ‘challenges’ and at the same time rehearse the performers.

What we don’t see in the midst of the chaos is the purpose of it. Chaos is designed to transform the stuck, move the stagnant and complacent, and find solution and relief to creative tension. The beauty of perceived uncontrollable instances like this is always there. In our case it made the directors of the show (including myself) LET GO and through the process of our letting go, our performers took the reins and stepped into a new power within themselves. Being the director of my school I play an important role and part of that role is about knowing that I am part of a bigger dynamic.

There were some key learnings for us all. The chaos that was in the air the morning of our performances was on reflection, a ‘positive’, as it shook up everyone to the importance and love of what we do. It mattered to all of us and as soon as we changed the way we did things (let go) the lighting was ready, the music fixed. Sometimes magic happens when you change your approach! After the structure is created in anything you do make sure you allow the flexibility in. If you have structure without flexibility you have an unfinished product. The two go together. Our flexibility of “letting go” didn’t mean we gave up, it meant that we stopped trying so hard to have everything perfect. That shift of intention is a powerful force! Our show was success with rave reviews as “our best yet”.

Celebrating The Goddess Within

The goddess depicts the timeless and immortal part that resides within. Through the cultural myths, story telling, art, photography and sculpture the goddess has been kept alive yet also seen as an unobtainable mysterious beauty.
So what is beauty? Beauty is symmetry, balance and awe inspiring that can be perceived as illusive, mysterious and unobtainable when misunderstood. Beauty is expressed in many forms such as the physical form, through the physical body, through a creative project, an invention, poetry, nature, intellect, wisdom, art, business, science and family etc. It is the order of chaos, the symmetrical aspect of life itself that does reside within everything and everybody.

I recently was a model for my sisters exciting Living Doll Photography’s “Goddess” Exhibition to be held in Newcastle on September 4th. Here the director of Living Doll (Melissa Histon) works creatively to capture the symmetry and beauty on a physical level.

The word “Beauty” is not limited to the outward physical appearance. Everyone demonstrates beauty in their life and in their own unique form. So if you think you don’t have beauty, look again! You do!

Here is a photo of my daughter and I just before the official shoot! To see more of Melissa’s work visit www.livingdoll.net.au - Stay tunned for exhibition details!

Transformational Experience™

Once only this year! BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPOINTMENT!

The Transformational Experience™ is a powerful training based on The Demartini Method ®. It is designed to give participants a deeper understanding of human behaviour with a system for *dissolving emotions such as guilt, blame, resentment, infatuation, loss and grief *coping with a changing environment *Clarifying personal values for Self Empowerment *Understanding self and other in life and/or business. Beneficial for: *Anyone wanting to overcome past hurts or present personal chaos *Coaches, trainers & teachers wanting to upgrade their skills *Anyone working with People including; parents, business, sales

The Demartini Method®
Known as ‘The Ultimate Human transformational Methodology’ The Demartini Method ® was Developed by Dr.John F. Demartini and is the culmination of more than thirty years of research & studies in numerous disciplines including; physics, quantum physics, philosophy, theology, metaphysics, psychology, astronomy, mathematics, neurology & physiology. It is a revolutionarily transformation method which dissolves stress & disempowerment and results in a new & refreshing paradigm in thinking & feeling. It provides you with greater clarity, purpose & energy as well as increases your confidence, creativity & personal impact in your craft.
When 4th July 9am till 6pm
Where Global Village English School Ruskin St Byron
Investment $99 for first 10 Participants!!! Normal price is $220

Bookings email info@katehiston.com

Up Grading Your Skills!

Continuing to learn and grow is not only interesting it provides you with more inspiration and ideas to drawn on in your craft; It benefits your audience in performance, business and life as well as increasing your confidence and self worth!

I recently upgraded my NLP Neuro Semantic coaching skills with Martin Urban through "Urban Trainings" in Nerang (photo right). I love Martin's training's and even though this was a repeat for me, I picked up lots of fresh insights that I missed out on the first time - This was because I was in a different frame of mind to what I was two years ago and in this learning process I took away from it what I needed this time - which is different to what I needed two years ago!

Have you upgraded your skills lately? Refresher courses in your craft are so beneficial to your self confidence which then benefits your audience, your clients and your life!

... below is an explaination of the qualification I upgraded through Urban Trainings - I provide Powerful Coaching sessions utilising this methodology as well as the Demartini Method® and have had some powerful results which you can check out on my testimonials page through my website!

Neuro Semantic NLP - A Coaching Process
Developed by Dr Michael Hall, Neuro Semantics is the advanced model of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Neuro Semantics is a powerful coaching methodology that transcends traditional Performance coaching, taking you to higher levels – to experience Developmental & Transformational change. Neuro Semantics is based on the ‘Meta States’ model. This assists coaches to access the higher levels of their clients mind. At these levels profound change & growth can occur naturally & easily. The result is success & transformation.

I am Legend - It's all in your attitude!

A legend is someone who leaves a legacy on the planet that impacts on it's inhabitance

4 things make you a legend in your craft

1) Skills - High level of skill in your craft. Always growing your skills is important!

2) Knowledge - Your level of knowledge of your craft

3) Attitude - Your determination, focus & willingness to do what it takes make your dream become reality

4) Innovation - Thinking BIG. Innovation is not just about being different - There is no need to reinvent the wheel! Innovation is about leveraging off what has worked for other legends & taking it to a new level while also being you!

Will Smith is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and is the only actor to have eight consecutive films open at #1 on the domestic box office as a Lead Actor!

His interveiw gives you an insight into his frame of mind and the clear driving force behind his success... This is what it takes to be a legend!

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pke9gEZfJXk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efacebook%2Ecom%2Fhome%2Ephp%3F&feature=player_embedded

The Magic of Systems & TEAMS!

Last year Total Image Dance Studio in Ballina celebrated their 10th Birthday and Under the Direction of Marianne Connors the school has grown from strength to strength. Last year I ran one of my team building trainings for the team of teachers at this school (photo left). I facilitated to unite & inspire the teachers as well as educated them on the hidden & deeper dynamics of teaching including tips on how to get the best out of every student! In this session we also systemised aspects of the running of the school.

Miss Marianne has recently given birth to her second child. She is taking time out for her recuperation & the school is still growing from strength to strength! This proves that when good systems are in place, with an inspired and; self motivated team - magic happens!!! Congrats team & to Miss Marianne for your amazing contributions & talent to the dance industry!

This is the Performance of Your Life - so what Is Your Story?

What is your story?

Everyone is a Performer and has a story to tell through their unique medium - Creative movement, dance, art, teaching, music, writing, healing, politics, music, business and all of our performances are bottom line - a story. We create stories based on our life experiences, feelings, interpretations and voids. What we perceive is most missing is what is called a void and from the void a story is created. We see this all the time in movies and as children in fairytale books. A classical example is Cinderella - Her void was a better life and dreamed of a fairy godmother to help her create her miracle change and that is what happened!

In the arts dancers dance their story; writers write their story; artists paint their story; fashion designers create a new piece - In the corporate world sales people sell you a solution based on a story; politicians make stories to create change; the media sells the biggest stories. All of our stories are created to fill a void and create a change either within ourselves or within society but ultimately it’s both.

As a personal development facilitator many people seek me with the perception that their personal stories are ‘wrong’ or ‘should have been different’ and want me to solve or fix them. In reality what they have failed to see is the solution or ending to their story - A story is only a full picture when it has an ending or an outcome. What I do with my clients is shift the perception of the person to enable them to see the FULL picture of their story and hence create an empowered ending. This gives them greater clarity and certainty within themselves which ultimately increases the power of their performance and selling ability to an audience! - Your performance and story is all about you and stories are the things that can be converted in cash through EXPRESSION!

What is your story? Have you found the solution to your story yet?
Want help? Email me at info@katehiston.com

Know Yourself ● Be Yourself ● Express Yourself

What Is your Injury Telling You?

What Is Your Injury Telling You?

Want to take a deeper look at psychological creation your injury? No, this article is not about nutrition or even your body as a dancer. Rather, it is an in-depth holistic look at the relationship between the mind, brain and the body (based on the biopsychosocial model) to resolve the underlying psychological creation of your injury!

Firstly let’s take a look at the individual functions of the brain, mind and body.
The brain is the centre of the nervous system and serves as a physical structure assisting the mind and generates behaviours that promote the welfare of the body through the secretion of chemicals including hormones and/or activating muscles.
The mind is a stream of consciousness made up of your thoughts, perceptions of reality memories, imagination and emotions - both conscious and unconscious
The body is an intelligent system constantly regenerating itself through the process of apoptosis – pre-programmed cell death and mitosis – pre-programmed cell duplication. It responds to the perceptions of the mind - both conscious and subconscious.

The mind bases its reality on its perception of reality. Perception is the process of collecting sensory information. How we perceive the world is formed in early childhood development and environment through our interpretations of sensory information.

The root of any emotional imbalance first begins at perception. When you perceive a situation by not looking at the whole picture (through seeing only positives or only negatives to a situation) you get emotional. At this time the brain then secretes hormones into the body and muscles contract as a response created by the imbalanced perception. When the emotions are expressed or discharged - muscles that were tense release and hormone secretion stops - you begin to balance. When conscious or unconscious underlying imbalanced perceptions are not dissolved then the body maintains the stress which then can create dis-ease or injury.

It is important to seek medical attention for disease and injury and at the same time it is also incredibly important to look at and resolve any underlying emotional & psychological cause. Your injury is a creation by you. In addition to any necessary medical support, you have the power within you to help the healing process through discovering then dissolving any underlying emotional and psychological cause. This is not a replacement for a medical practitioner, rather a complementary process that can help you get to the deeper cause. I have assisted a number of people to connect with the psychological creation of injury and it is a very effective and liberating experience for many. Below are a few exercises and questions that I ask my clients to help begin the healing process.

Part 1- Discovering the underlying cause
1) Place your hand on your injury, close your eyes and take 10 deep rhythmical breaths - breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds
2) Remembering your body is an amazing intelligent system; ask your injury in your mind how it is feeling. Once you get a response then write it down.
3) Ask yourself: What are you gaining from it? What do you now get to do or not do that you didn’t get to prior to the injury? How is it serving me? What am I learning?
You can get to the underlying issue on your own, however it is most effective when a professional facilitates you through as they have the skills to get you to dig deep to find the answer.

When working with dancers I have found some common subconscious creations are;
● To get out of doing something
● Burnout due to feelings of not being ‘good enough’
● Repressed anger towards a perceived authority e.g. parent, teacher, boss
● Not feeling supported
● Not seeing a way out of a situation

When the mind is centered the body heals. The body feels and reacts to what is taking place in the mind all the time!