Do you cross-train in other dance styles?

I have to be honest… it all started with “So You Think You Can Dance” about nine years ago. This fascinating show with its young talented dancers who could do things with their bodies that I did not know was possible…it is responsible for my obsession with modern and contemporary dance.

I had to learn more. So found a studio near me that offered beginner modern dance classes for adults and I signed up!

It was a mind-blowing, eye-opening and completely humbling experience for this professional dancer who at that point had more than a decade of belly dance under her belt. Everything from the posture to the footwork to the floor patterns felt foreign to me and I was once again that new girl tripping over herself in the back of the room.

I kept at it for two and half years and while I never got very good at it the concepts and techniques I learned in those weekly classes changed my body and my belly dance for the better. The body carriage and balance were immediately useful in my practice and the controlled abandon in the ebb and flow that happens in a modern class were very exciting to add into my choreographies and teaching.

It’s been six years since I last attended a modern dance class. I took a break at the end of my pregnancy with my daughter and never made it back. But I did for the first time in a long time watch an episode of “So You Think You Can Dance” just last week. Who knows where it will take me this time…

Do you cross train in other dance styles? Which is your favorite?

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