Three Questions about Creativity with Baratunde Thurston

Three weeks ago I'd never heard of Baratunde Thurston. Then I heard an interview with the comedian/author/entrepreneur on Marc Maron's WTF podcast. He sounded like an interesting dude, and what became apparent very quickly in the interview was that he was a man with a lust for life and and that he had seemingly bottomless reserves of energy and creativity. I quickly bought and read his great book, How to be Black.

I would go through his bio for you, but it's too damn long! You can check out his many ventures on his website here. Suffice to say, his curiosity for the world is insatiable, and when I find people like that, I just want to saw open their heads and probe their brains.

So, how does a dude who grew up in crack-era Washington DC, end up going to Harvard and selling a New York Times bestseller?

I've talked before about finding your lane, your passion, and going for it in whatever way you can. Baratunde discovered this early, thanks to a school friend.

I was a math and science kid almost entirely through high school and had no great appreciation for writing academically or for fun. A schoolmate of mine suggested I write for the high school newspaper. His name was Dave, and I don't know why he thought I'd be good at it, but he was right, and I was hooked.  

Once you've found something you love to do, find ways to keep it going.  

Once I got to university, I joined the daily college newspaper, but that wasn't enough. My frustration with how little my classmates new about the news inspired me to create a comedic newsletter called NewsPhlash. I ran it all four years, and the spirit of that experiment still powers much of my writing today: an attempt to deliver occasionally useful information in a comedic and entertaining package. 

Once Uni is over and you have to enter the real world, following your dream and indulging your creative self gets a lot more difficult because you have more responsibilities. Again, find ways to keep doing what you love, keep exploring to discover new passions, and find ways to motivate yourself to keep going.

I get excited about new things in general -- new outlets for expression, new ways of communicating the same message, so I think I'm naturally drawn to experiment with the shiny new things. Competition also keeps me motivated, both competing with others and also with my past self. I like trying to out-do what I've already put out in the world. The last motivator is impact. On occasion I'll get feedback from someone who's been affected by my work, and it's just enough to keep me from abandoning the entire enterprise for whiskey-soaked afternoons at the pub. 

Motivation comes in many forms, and you need to use it your advantage. Know your motivations and use them to power your output! 

So now you should be a curious and motivated person; but what about those times when you've just gotten out of bed, plonked down in front of the computer and your neurons aren't ready to fire up just yet. What do you do?

I prompt myself with raw material from the world, usually in the form of news. I also take moments to look back over my own recent notes and public statements to see if a new pattern or thesis emerges. On any given day, I may not be adding anything brilliant to the world, but if I take an hour to look back over a few months of work, sometimes I see something new or larger than any individual piece. All this is something I might call The Devour Method. Getting myself saturated in media/information usually inspires some connection, new thought, and then a thesis or project to commence.

What are you interested in? Dance? Well, maybe watch a bunch of you-tubes of street choreography to get you pumped!

Here's the takeaway - find your passion and follow it with everything you have, work out what motivates you to do it, and use the world as your jumping off point.

Baratunde has become a success through indulging his creativity in a variety of ways. He also knows what keeps him going. Finding your passion is just the beginning. You need to discover what gets you going and what keeps you motivated, and make those changes a part of your life.

Baratunde Thurston runs the company cultivatedwit, an awesome start-up that aim to develop solutions at the intersection of technology and comedy, by humorous storytelling and through ushering new products into the world in fun and interesting ways.

Baratunde is also an accomplished stand-up comedian. Here's he speaks at SXSW on the power of comedy.

Three Questions about creativity with Adam Parson

I've been around dancers for almost 15 years now, and have seen creativity in all it's forms, but if there is one thing I've learned, it's that you never stop learning.

Late last year, American contemporary choreographer Adam Parson came through the Pure Funk studio as part of an Aussie workshop tour. Now that in itself is nothing special, we get choreographers passing through year round, but Adam's story struck me as interesting.

Here was an amazing choreographer, a dude that has worked with some great artists, been around the world and has incorporated dance into a bunch of different mediums, and yet his bio says he started dancing at 26 years old.

Yes, you read that right.  At a time when some professionals are starting to think about winding down their careers, his was just beginning.

I couldn't fathom it. How could someone have the motivation and the confidence, or whatever it took, to make it such a cut-throat industry starting that late?  I had to find out, so I got in touch with Adam and tried to find out the secret to his success.

His response was so great, I had to just repeat it word-for-muthaeffing-word.

Bob: What was it that inspired your decision to start your career at 26.

Adam: Being a computer engineer and accounting manager for a top computing company in Georgetown in Washington D.C. was a great job. I loved using my nerdy side to figure things out and be responsible for running the company on the back end, but I missed doing gymnastics which kept me in shape. (I ended up being 230lbs working at McDonalds before getting this job, and then sitting for 8 hours!)  When my sister asked me to take her friend to the dance studio and I walked in and saw all the energy going on, I has hooked!  It was as simple as that. It was like combining my nerdy side and my gymnastic side into organized movement. I knew that whatever I did from now on would have to incorporate both and it was super inspiring challenging myself to be able to do this at an age when most people are moving into their "steady" careers. 

Bob: What(or who) was it that encouraged you to keep it up, as I realize it must have been hard work when you were first staring out?

Adam: My first teacher Terry Peyton was my biggest champion, she pushed me like no other, while guiding me when I would get frustrated. She saw the potential in me and made it happen.  "What" encouraged me was taking ballet. My teacher Elan Cooper was instrumental in instilling in me the importance of ballet. I took to it like I was learning a new computer language, it was fun to figure it out! 

Bob: What do you think has been a key factor in allowing you to continue to be a creative as a choreographer?

Adam: Growing up in Kenya would be one, going to a British boarding school with an international student body would be another, but mostly having teachers like Cindera Che, Terri Best, Helene Phillips, Randy Allaire, Keith Clifton, Charles Anderson, Eliana Alexander and a piano Player named Betty(who taught me the differences in notes and intonation).  These people helped to shape me to the choreographer that I am today by seeing who I was and not trying to change me to fit their image, but rather helped me find my own voice. 

The big takeaway that I got from Adam's inspiring story was pretty clear - don't settle for what you have if it isn't what you love.

Whatever it is that you're passionate about, chances are it is what you should be doing. That's not to say it won't take a lot of hard work and commitment, and that you have to surround yourself with people who both push you and support you, but when you find what you should be doing, you'll know it and you should go for it.

Responsibility and fear of change may compete in your psyche for supremacy over what you finally decide to do, but ultimately doing what you want will benefit not only you but those around you.

Experiment and found out where your passion truly lies, and then go for it. Even if, like Adam, you're not 18.

It's never too late to start.

The Best Film You've Never Seen: Robert Elder on Inspiration

I've been writing for a long time (one of the benefits of getting older), and  yet I still struggle sometimes to find subjects to write about.

What usually breaks me out of a funk is when I see or hear something that fires off a neural connection in my brain.  

You never know what it might be.  It could be a word, a song or a story that someone is telling you. As long as you find a subject and then a unique way of looking at that subject, you're on your way.

In the case of  journalist and film critic Robert Elder, his inspiration came after years of talking to master filmmakers like Richard Curtis, Richard Linklater and Danny Boyle. 

Elder had an idea to write a book where directors were given the chance to defend one movie they thought was underrated or unfairly maligned. The result was his book The best film you've never seen.

After reading the book I spoke to Elder what inspired him to write it.  Here's what he had to say.

"I love movies, always have, and what I love most is sharing good films. It's like when you're in high school and you invite friends to watch something that's obscure, or exposure them to a deep cut in a musician's catalogue. Also: Having done a lot of director interviews as an entertainment journalist, I often found that they were most animated when talking about OTHER people's films."

If you're getting stuck trying to find motivation to spark that creative fuse in your brain, talk to people. Everybody has a different perspective, and everyone has something to offer.

Talk to enough people and the inspiration will come. Jonah Lehrer talks about 'urban interactions' being a catalyst for creativity in cities, and he's right. Put a bunch of interesting people in small promixity to each other, and ideas begin to flourish.

So next time you've got the mental block, step away from the laptop, pull out the ear-buds and go chat to someone.

You'll be surprised what happens.

The Best Film You've Never Seen by Robert Elder is available for purchase HERE

The Big Payback: Hip-Hop, creativity and finding your angle

Dan Charnas, Chino XL & Rick Rubin

If you’re a fan of Hip-Hop or of music in general, and you haven’t read The Big Payback by Dan Charnas, then you are doing yourself a disservice.

It chronicles Hip-Hop from it’s birth behind DJ Hollywood's turn-tables, and follows the tumultuous journey of a marginalized musical genre that exploded in the 90's as a fully-fledged commercial juggernaut.

Like Hip-Hop itself, Charnas is somewhat of a pioneer, as prior to his book there was no definitive chronological history of Hip-Hop.

Charnas is no stranger to Hip-Hop’s creative process, in fact he was running the American Recordings rap department in 1991 and released such notable tracks as Sir Mix-A-Lots ‘Baby Got Back’ and DJ Kool’s ‘Let me clear my throat’.

I asked Charnas about his motivations for writing the book, and whilst his answer was simple, it highlighted a technique that many creative people never consider.

“The book demanded that it be written, and I was the only person who wanted to write it!”

If you’re having trouble kick-starting your creative catalog, think about the things you enjoy. Is there an aspect of those things that’s unique and worth documenting? 

Dan Charnas found a unique angle by tackling a subject that no-one else wanted to.

How will you challenge yourself? 

Order The Big Payback: The History of the business of Hip-Hop at Dan's website HERE

From innovator to accumulator - Jay-Z reaches Hip-Hop's Holy Grail

Most of you are probably too young to remember, and those old enough probably didn't realize it was happening, but back in the 90's, Jay-Z had his finger on the pulse.  He knew what was hot, and he jumped on it.

What was not hot in late 90's was Southern Hip-Hop.  This was a time when Nelly was dreaming of a baseball career, Outkast were rapping about space aliens and Lil Wayne was a 14 year old in a group called the Hot Boys. At that time, the East and West Coast's were popping for Hip-Hop, but Jay-Z knew the Dirty South was coming.

Whether it was recruiting UGK for 'Big Pimpin', jumping on remixes with C-Murder or recording with Junevile, Jay-Z knew that the Southern rappers and producers had fresh sounds and slang and he wanted in. This was Jay-Z the curator, the taste maker, back when he had both the juice and street knowledge to know what was hot and how he could integrate it with his sound. He also had the respect of the Hip-Hop community, and Southern rappers were eager to be in the Jay-Z business.

Fast forward to July 2013, and Jay is dropping his new album Magna Carta Holy Grail. Although Jay still pimps for Southern producers Pharrell and Timbaland, his business is no longer searching for the next musical wave, it's searching for the next iconic product.  In this case it's Samsung and Jay's choice to sell 1 million of his albums through purchase of the new Galaxy S4. It's marketing genius no doubt, but what about the music?

I'm searching through the album looking for something new, artists that we've never heard or beats incorporated from other genres, and I'm coming up short.

Sure, there's new producer WonderGurl, a 16 year old wunderkind, and some vaguely dubstep beats on MikeWillMadeit's 'Beach is better', but I'm not seeing much in the way of innovation or curation.

The first track on the album 'Holy Grail' is the magna carta of intro's. Timbaland on the beat, JT on the hook (for a minute and a half no less), it's death by chocolate in a song. There's no innovation here, just a One Republic track with a skittery Timbo beat riding under it.  'Picasso Baby' and 'Tom Ford' fair a hell of a lot better thankfully, two designer bangers full of references to items even more pricey than their titles. Unfortunately, it downhill for a much of the rest of the album.

'Oceans' tries to conjure up visions of slaveships juxtaposed against fancy yachts, as Hov envisions his ancestral struggles while kicking back on the bow of a 30 footer. The muddle of historical pain and celebratory boasting fails to conjure up much at all on repeated listens.

'FUTW' rides a more laid-back version of the Picasso beat, with Timbaland showing more soul than ever before. However, the subdued production gives Jay an excuse to lay back on the couch and converse about Homeland, among other things. The dirty basslines continue with 'Crown' and 'Heaven', both also failing to inspire much more beyond slight head-nodding, the latter almost derailing completely with a superfluous R.E.M. lyric.

'Part 2 (on the run)' feels like a early 00's Mary J Blige remix, but for those still hanging in, there's respite.  The double feature of the too-short 'Beach is Better' and 'BBC' would have stood out on a tauter album, here they're almost lost in the blander back-end.

Besides a few highlights, the album comes off as flat, or as some critics have posited, safe. No longer the innovator, Jay is sitting on cruise-control, rolling out stadium-ready bangers and filling the album out with some old school leaning productions for the true heads.

It's a little sad, because in becoming big business, he's lost sight of what it was like when he was a start-up.
As he said himself "the streets is watching", just as back in the day he was watching the street; taking little known genres and feeding them to the masses in three minute highlight packages. These days though, he seems content watching the hands on his Hublot watch, counting down the days to his retirement.

Review: Killer Mike & El-P - Run the Jewels

Run the Jewels is a collaboration between Brooklyn veteran rapper/producer El-P and Southern stalwart Killer Mike. They came up through vastly different channels. El-P was the definition of backpack-rap in the 90's with the seminal group Company Flow, while Killer Mike was anointed out the gate having found affiliation with Outkast and Goodie Mob at the peak of their powers.

After linking up a couple years ago, El-P hit the boards hard. He dominated the Hip-Hop landscape last year by lacing both his and Mike's solo albums with stellar productions like 'Big Beast' and 'Drones over Brooklyn'.

Following the critical praise of both Cancer for Cure and Mike's R.A.P. Music the two had struck up such a firm friendship they decided to tour together and put together this album.

As for the music itself, it sounds a lot better than a free collabo album rightfully should. Title Track 'Run the Jewels' leads off the album and sets the tone for the other 9 tracks. No nonsense Hip-Hop with with aggressively boastful lyrics. It jumps out of the gate with amped guitar lines, hard drums and sinister synths. They double down on the braggadocio with '36 Chain', a straight up banger with what sounds like someone playing bells in a tunnel deep in the mix and some nasty drums.

'DDFH' slows the pace a little but ups the intensity and paranoia, and even includes a chorus (although 'Hey Hey Hey' hardly constitutes a hook). 'Sea Legs' opens with swirling Bollywood arpeggio's and finger snaps with El-P sliding in just before a sub-Timberland drum pattern kicks  up the pace.  Mike comes out fighting, declaring "I rival your idols" among a litany of other boasts and threats.

'Job Well Done' sees the boys looking back over the waste they've laid over their careers, and everyone from men to women, monks to dolphins gets it. It's a lap of honor after surviving a war and "walking through the ashes, saying 'didnt we do well'?". Killer Mike uses 'No Come Down' as an excuse to tell a story about getting so high that he "Traveled to the moon", made love to a woman and came back to earth to find out they were brother and sister. Must have been a crazy trip.

'Get it' is about just that, and while the dexterous El-P dreams about the simple life, one filled with "the company of women with opinions and fat asses", Mike is still in angry mode, unleashing on Catholics, Cops and Goofy rappers.

In the end, there's no real concept to this album, other than two rap vets in their prime throwing heat over some of the winters hottest beats. So good, you almost feel bad getting it for free. In their own words, go get it.

Get the album HERE for free.
 

Video: Robyn - U Should Know me better (feat. Snoop Dogg)

Review: Kanye West - Yeezus

One of Kanye West's many peeves has been the fact that he has never won an album of the year Grammy. His last album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' was an opulent, star-studded affair that seemed to court Grammy nominators and looked to  finally provide West with a win, but it was not to be.

With his new opus 'Yeezus', Kanye seems to have given up on ever winning Album of the year. This record is at times abrasive, aggressive, dark, misogynistic, racist and spare, and yet the sum of the parts is never less than awesome.

It's clear that some Kanye fans won't be happy with the album (see #yeezus on twitter for proof), and he probably won't find any new fans, but for those who up for more than radio-ready hits will certainly be rewarded.

The album opens with 'On Site', one of four Daft Punk produced tracks, and an song designed to test both casual fans and stereo speakers. The blown-out bass and sharp synth stabs are the backbone of the uptempo beat, pushing an energized West to exclaim "how much do I not give a f**k?" before dropping a sweet distorted soul sample right the middle of the song.

'Black Skinhead' rides a Marilyn Manson sample, and lets Kanye get his Kurt Cobain on, screaming and yelling that he's "been a menace for the longest". Hide your daughters.

'I am a God' is 'Ye at his most egotistical, yet also his most self-aware. He must know how ridiculous a line like "Hurry up with my damn croissants" comes across, and yet he spits it with the same disdain with which  he disses his ex and the valet who's late with his Porsche. Is the track darkly comic or comically dark, I'm still not sure? 'New Slaves' follows, a pointed and supremely focused track about "that rich n***a racism". It hits hard lyrically and musically, and is the apex of the spare minimalism that defines the first four tracks.

The beat choice switches up with 'Hold my liquor', an hallucinogenic concoction anchored by a faded hook from fellow Chicagoan Chief Keef. It's very 808's and Heartbreaks, right down to it's confessional lyrics about Wests inability to stop drinking. 'I'm in it' opens with Kanye getting dirty through a filtered mic and a fuzzed-out synth line, before breaking into a rabid Dancehall bridge followed by a stunning Justin Vernon vocal. It's impossible to dislike, even though it contains some of the most NSFW lines even laid to tape.

'Blood on the leaves' baits controversy for different reasons, using a Nina Simone sample about lynching and turning it into a chance for Ye to wax nostalgic about his ex, and not fondly. If the Simone sample wasn't enough, it's mashed up with horns from the C-Murder 90's track 'Down for my niggaz'. It's what you'd expect to hear if Kanye had found trap music during his 808 and Heartbreaks period. In a word, dope.

The wooziness continues with 'Guilt Trip', with West proclaiming his status as the 'Chief Rocker', and sampling another dancehall legend in Beenie Man, although Beenies voice is chopped and screwed. The track owes a little to both Dancehall and Houston screw music, and continues the theme of unexpected genre mashing on the album. 'Send it up' is pointedly arch, with a beat that pushes the limits of listenability and features a verse by Chicago mixtape legend King Louie. At this point in the album, we're about as far from Top 40 territory as you can get.

'Bound' is the exquisite closer, and perhaps the closest thing to a typical Kanye track. There's an amazing soul sample, that Ye hilarious uses to wax lyrical about the women in the club who 'order champagne, but still look thirsty, wearing forever 21, but just turned thir-tay'. However, keeping with the unpredictable nature, even this beat gets switched up. Justin Vernon jumps in for a blazing chorus that ensures 'no leaving this party with nobody to love'.

Albums as visceral as this one don't come along very often, mostly because artists and groups have to compromise their sound in some way to achieve success, whether it be hiring hit producers or changing style to keep with current trends.

Thank god then that West is both successful and confident enough to ignore popular trends altogether and return with an album that hits with the same force as the Sex Pistols, Public Enemy or Nine-Inch Nails in their prime.

Review: The-Dream - IV Play

The-Dream doesn’t care about the radio.

Over the course of his three solo albums (love/Hate, Love vs Money and Love King), The-Dream has shown a knack for delivering engaging songs that tend go against current R&B trends.

At a time when everyone’s doubling down on EDM and trying to squeeze every last dollar from it before its inevitable collapse, Terius Nash seems determined to look forward by looking back. In previous years this retro style’s worked marvellously well, whether it’s crafting hits for others (‘Single Ladies’, ‘Umbrella’, ‘Baby’), or making memorable yet underappreciated songs for himself (‘Yamaha’, ‘Rockin that Shit’).

However, it seems on this release he’s tried too hard not to sound like everyone else and ends up sounding too little like himself.

From the first track you notice somethings missing. The-Dream has always been counted for two things in his lyrics, hilarious double-entendres and ridiculously sincere pledges of love, and yet there seems to be no humour here. ‘High Art’, his opener with Jay-Z, is a lazy contemplation on the art of getting high, and it’s just an excuse to highlight a nice Jay-Hova verse. The second single ‘IV Play’ is again pretty straightforward and not very clever. The strain continues with what could be a spiritual sequel to Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ called ‘Equestrian, however it’s beat is uninspired and the lyrics never rise above it.

‘P***y’ is one of the rare tracks that noodles it’s way into your brain the way The-Dreams track have always done, and it’s coupled with another tight verse from Pusha T. Kelly Rowland and Beyonce drop in for a couple of middling ballads, which makes you nostalgic for the fun bounce of Mariah Carey’s Love vs Money contribution ‘My Love’.

Just when you’re about to switch off, the exultant yet nihilistic ‘Michael’ drops in, with The-Dream continuing a theme of one-night stands , but this one with a twist that both tips it hat to MJ whilst still able to put a smile on your face. It’s vintage The-Dream.

The second half of the album is not much better than the first, with Nash trying to show his skills at varied genre’s, with mixed success. ‘Loving You/Crazy’ has an uptempo groove that feels out of place and never quite lands, while ‘Holy Love’ and ‘New Orleans’ aim high as girl-done-me-wrong ballads that end up feeling overwrought and underwhelming. It’s not all bad though, as ‘Self-conscious’ and ‘Slow it down’ remind you that Nash can write memorable hooks in his sleep.

If this is your first exposure to The-Dream you’d be better off checking out one of three earlier studio albums, or his last mixtape 1977. All were great examples of how your lyrics can be both funny and sincere at the same time, and how you can create a sound that‘s both original and hot.

Review: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

It's been almost ten years since their last studio album, 2004's Human After All, and with the massive 2007 pyramid tour and the mass-marketing surrounding this album, it's hard to contextualize RAM without being influenced by hype and expectation. Or is it? Get a couple of listens out the way and you'll find your mind becoming a little more open to the idea that this is not Discovery or Homework, their two best known (and best) albums.

'Give life back to music' doesn't so much breath life as it seems to rely on a respirator, which, as an opening track is probably the point. However, if you thought it was a prelude to a thumping bassline of a second track, you're wiring needs a look over. 'Game of love' is a languid grower, a sort of sleepy ballad Hot Chip would crank out, but with the added bonus of the warmest vocoder work you'll ever see.

'Giorgio by Moroder' is an early highlight, working as both a short introduction to Moroder himself and a strong example of why his synthesized sound swept the world so rapidly in the late 70's/early 80's. Similar to 'Game of Love', 'Within' finds Chilly Gonzales laying down a sweet piano loop that is pretty throughout but never hits any significant heights.

Julian Casablancas floats through for 'Instant Crush', which seems to happy to coast on it's effortless cool and becomes wearing by the second verse. 'Lose yourself to dance' is the first time we hear Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, on a song that builds to an enjoyable Spoon-like strut whilst never losing it's groove.
The eight-minute mini opera that is 'Touch' traversesa few genres and does so confidently. It's another song that requires a few listens to lock in, but Paul Williams frail vocal is an instant gratifier. First single 'Get Lucky' follows, showing that a good melody and strong bassline never goes out fashion.

'Beyond' and Motherboard' are a couple of impressively strident instrumentals, something lacking in the slower tracks on the albums. It's followed by the Todd Edwards guesting 'Fragments of time', a track that sounds like it's been excavated directly from the 70's, in a good way.

'Doin it right' is most contemporary track on the album, and it's also the best, which bodes well for future releases, if Daft Punk chooses to move in that direction. The simple lyric  from Panda Bear "If you lose your way tonight, that's how you know the magic's right" transports the listener to a different place than the rest of the album. I wish I'd been taken to that place a little more.

The simple concept of robot becoming human, or trying to at least, haunts the album. I think if we'd heard more of the beating heart and less of the yearning to have one, the results would've been more engaging and little less distant.

'Contact' finishes off the album and it feels like an album finisher. It also feels more contemporary and more lively than any song besides 'Giorgio'.

In an early 2013 Rolling Stone interview, Daft Punk said that they made this album for themselves and that they didn't know what they were thinking releasing it, and you can understand what they are getting at. If you're not on their wavelength, you're going  to have a hard time locking in with at least a third of the album right from the start.

To give yourself the best chance of enjoying this album and appreciating for what it is, lose yourself to it and give a few spins.

Stream: Janelle Monae feat Erykah Badu - Q.U.E.E.N.

Janelle Monae released her last album in 2010, and so has taken a little time off to craft her latest LP The Electric Lady.  Here's the first single, it's pretty darn funky.

Listen to it HERE

Video: Jimmy Fallon clucks the Lumineers

Happy Easter!

Video: Justin Timberlake - Mirrors

The video for Timberlake's 'Mirrors' features three couples at different stages in their lives and gives the song a little more context. Timberlake also confessed the song was a tribute to his grandparents and their long-standing marriage.

Stream: The-Dream - Tron

The_Dream has another great new track, which is all good news with his new album coming out shortly.

Tron is one of most rap type tracks that he has made, and he means business

Find the song HERE

Essay: Dance, it should be fun

I’ve just returned to dance classes this year after a long lay-off.

I’ve noticed that I feel better about what I’m doing now more-so than when I was younger.

The insecurities that used to plague me are gone. That’s not to say I’ve improved, I’m still months away from returning to even the middling level of ability that I used to have, but I am enjoying it more, which means I’m more likely to stick with it this time.

I’ve always felt that that zen-like state you feel when you dance a piece well and in time was unattainable, that it was never more than a fleeting joy, like a great day on the golf course.

But maybe I have it wrong. Maybe the zen-like state is just that, a state of mind rather than a momentary feeling that you’ve bridged the gap between dance and soul.

Can you be satisfied with just being at class, just enjoying it, unburdened by the weight of expectation that we tend to put on ourselves?  Or do we have to have a goal to work towards, and should we embrace the uncomfortable feeling of under-achieving because it’s the world’s way of telling us to do better?

Surely, if you’re having fun at an activity, and you’re self-aware enough to know that you’re not embarrassing yourself totally, then you should improve, and rapidly enough that it makes it worth it not to stress too much.

Besides, if I’m enjoying myself, I’m more likely to practice at home.  And at the club.  And in the car.  And in the shower.