... Love this statement made by Micheal Rooney....
"There's no finish line."
Man these are good quotes by Micheal Rooney!!! Take a listen.
This last week I had the pleasure of sitting in on an on-line dance intensive called "The CAMP" based out of Los Angeles. One of my private students Eva (she's the taller girl in the above picture) was accepted into the program that included top choreographers from LA and ran by the world renowned dance agency MSA.
There were 17 amazing teachers/choreographers who taught throughout the week. A few that I have worked with and admire like Maguerite Derricks, Mark Meismer and Micheal Rooney. If you don't know who they are please look them up. I'm sure you've seen their amazing work before on T.V. and in films.
A couple projects I love that Micheal has choreographed are "Oh so quiet" and The Muppets
I worked with Marguerite when she hired me for all the Austin Powers movies, a ton of TV shows and the Lenny Kravits "Lady" video.
Mark is a teacher who is known around the world. He's an inspiration to so many young dancers going into a commercial dance career.
On Thursday during the question and answer session with Micheal, he said if you can make dance your best friend that is the key to making it your career.
When you're happy... dance.
When you're sad... dance.
When you're stressed... dance.
When you don't feel like dancing... dance.
You get it!
I just loved this so much because it's true!!!! If you can use dance to get you through the hard times or to enjoy dance during the good times it will be a tool you will be forever grateful for...even if you don't make it your career!
Dance will become your best friend and be there for you always.
Dance is definitely that tool for me. Even though my relationship with dance has evolved over the years it's still my place to go to express myself. I feel very thankful that I was able to turn my best friend into my career.
The more we can make that emotional connection to dance the richer and more mature our movement becomes as well. I talk a bit about this on my LiVE when I break down the character developement section in myDANCEjournal
Let's talk about Micheal's quote "There's no finish line." I think I may love this quote more than the first... if that's even possible. We are such result orientated beings, to our detriment most times. I have to remind myself on the daily that life if a ride and to enjoy the ups and downs. If the ride stops, if I get to the finish line.... well, you know what that means. Arg.
I talk about setting goals all the time. I stand by my strong belief in them. However we can't think of them as finish lines but instead as mile markers. When we're appraoching a goal we need to start looking beyond it to set a new mile marker to get to.
Don't get me wrong, you celebrate conquering that goal! You scream it from the mountain tops and post it on every social media outlet. But you can't stay there. Keep that momentum going and keep climbing.
I was so touched by Micheal's speech on Thursday I had to share it with you all. It's less then 2 minutes but jam packed with so many golden nuggets. Again, please listen. I also love his quotes, "It's about progress not perfection" and "Buy your career, don't lease it."
It's important to find inspiration. Thank you Micheal for inspiring me this week with your words of wisdom.