- Hey guys before we jump into Dancers' Corner,
I have a little commercial from Arshiner.
They sent me these really cute,
little girls dance dresses,
and they're so freaking adorable,
I can't wait to show you.
So the first one brace yourself.
Is this sweet little...
I just threw the bag.
Look at this, look at it, oh my God.
FYI, this is like a size four five I think,
and it does stretch.
So this has like a cute level chiffon skirt.
It has little cap sleeves.
And then of course it has a little leo
that's kind of underneath it,
so it's just easy to slip on and off.
Adorable for a little ballet class.
Or for just wearing around the house.
All right, our next one
we're doing a little blue mood.
So this blue guy, I believe I ordered a size up,
cause I wanted to gift these to my sweet little nieces
and they're different ages of course.
So they're different sizes.
This one I went up a size,
you can see it's a little bit bigger,
and it's blue and sparkly.
It has cute little sequins all on it.
Again with this sweet little cap sleeve,
but this one has a ruffle,
a little ruffle detail.
Glimmer, glimmer, glimmer.
Yes.
Same thing here, it has a little leo attached
with the bottom, my low is like what's happening.
It's freaking adorable,
and they're also really soft.
I love them.
Okay, this last one pretty much stole my heart,
and I think I'm gonna keep this one.
So don't tell my nieces,
I'm just going to save it for myself.
(laughs loudly)
Okay, oh my God I dropped.
(breathing loudly)
Its so cute.
Are you kidding me?
First of all, it's my favorite color.
This like dusty purple kinda of a vibe.
It has a little lace detail,
it's like half my torso.
(laughs loudly)
It has a little lace detail and it has a key hold back
and it's freaking adorable and wait for it.
(singing softly)
It comes with the detachable chiffon skirt.
Like okay that was inside out.
Get the heck out of here.
It's freaking cute.
So I'm gonna save that for the future,
we don't know, It's fine.
And the very last thing that they sent
I'm actually wearing.
It's a woman's leotard.
It's so comfortable and you guys,
I have a long torso
and a little bit of a booty.
So leotards tend to make me feel
like I have an eternal wedgie,
but this one is so comfortable.
It's soft and it's just your classic scoop neck,
and it's a scoop in the back as well.
It's just a good basic to have
for the basic tank or basic short sleeve in your wardrobe,
but this is for your ballet wardrobe.
So check out my video description.
All of the coupon codes
and all of the products that I showed you guys.
(phone beeping)
Oh my God, someone is trying to call me?
Go check out the video description.
(laughs loudly)
Hey guys.
(laughs loudly)
I'm trying something different with this Dancers' Corner
so bear with me.
I am recording on zoom.
First off wanna say thank you
for being so patient with Dancers' Corner.
I wanted to take a little break
and kind of regroup with DC
and just think about the future
of where I want this series to go.
And I've been thinking a lot that it would be really cool
for Dancers' Corner to eventually be a podcast.
Because I think it would be incredible
and I could have really cool guests come on
and just kind of have like a longer
interview conversation style Dancers' Corner
on various topics.
So I'm gonna slowly transition DC into a podcast,
but the first little step is to change it to zoom.
And just do a little bit more of like conversational,
less edited casual if you will of a feel.
So thank you for hanging tight with me,
there might be some like little glitches in this,
but we're gonna get there.
Okay?
(laughs softly)
So today we're gonna be talking about coming back
to dance after a long break.
This long break could be because of an injury,
it could be because you wanted to go try something else out,
maybe you played a sport
or maybe it was hard financially,
so you needed to take a little break.
Whatever, maybe you got burnt out it happens.
So this episode is about kind of the idea
of what happens when you take that break,
and then what happens on your way to returning to dance.
I think the first thing that comes to any dancers mind
when they're returning to dance...
And also just FYI, I've been in this position before.
There was like a year and a half
in my millionaire dance career
that I took like a year and a half off.
I played club volleyball and I loved it.
And I played for like really good clubs,
and it was definitely a moment
where I was like should I do volleyball?
But dance of course,
stole my heart from three years old,
so I went back to it
and I'm so thankful I did.
But I remember in that process of like going back,
there were so many things running through my head
and the first one being intimidation.
I was thinking in my head am like,
Oh my God, okay, what have I missed?
Like am I gonna be as
advanced as I was when I stopped
or am I gonna have friends when I go back to the studio,
am I gonna be able to take the same classes,
have the same teacher.
It kind of was this scary feeling of like,
will I be able to
just kind of jump back in,
like right where I left off,
and how will that look different.
And I remember that was kind of stressful.
Like that first day back to the studio
when everyone's like holy, welcome back
or like where have you been?
Like you kind of have to go through that a little awkward
stage for a moment where you took this break,
you took a hiatus and it's okay that you did that.
But you kinda just have to accept
that you have to go through
that little like bumpy discomfort,
until you find your place again.
One of the best pieces of advice I could give
to someone who's returning to dance is
open-mindedness and acceptance.
Two really big topics that are a lot harder,
to execute.
Open-mindedness in the sense of your returning
as a different person,
you are not the same person as when you left,
there's obviously been like,
an amount of time between when you left
and when you returned.
There maybe was an injury in between there,
there maybe was some other sort of activity.
Maybe your body is different,
maybe you've just grown up a little bit.
You are not the same person as when you left.
So inevitably,
you cannot just jump right back in
to being that person.
So open-mindedness is being open
to taking different classes,
being open to exploring different levels
and maybe having to go down a level from when you left off.
And that is okay.
Remember that you're in a different season of your life,
you're in a different part of your life
than you were when you left,
and so things are going to look different.
Being open-minded to...
Of course if you have good dance friends,
they're gonna accept you with loving, loving, open arms.
But it might be really awesome to you to get
to know some of the other dancers in the studio
that you might've otherwise not been friends with.
Open-mindedness of what teachers you have,
open-mindedness of how your body is gonna react to dancing.
This kind of brings the acceptance piece in dance
is something that needs consistency.
So if you took a break,
you will likely not be as flexible
or as mobile, you might have to just kind
of reboot those turnout muscles,
reboot those dance muscles that are needed
for dance technique.
You're kind of sending your body back
into this really rigorous art form this sport.
And so it needs time to adjust.
And I think if you go in with ear,
if you go in with a critical mind,
self criticism.
Why am I not as good?
Why didn't I get my turn?
Why can't I do the splits anymore?
If you clog your mind
with fears and criticism
and judgment of yourself,
you leave no space for the joy
and the beauty that dance brings to your life.
So (exhales heavily) you kind of have to pick.
Do you wanna go in with an open mind?
Do you wanna go in working on self-acceptance
and saying okay body it's okay,
we're gonna get back to where we were.
We're gonna be better than where we were.
But in due time with patients and with work.
That's kind of up to you the decision
that you wanna make right there.
Another beautiful part of returning to dance
is having a fresh start.
Maybe you didn't like the studio you were at when you left.
So go find a new one,
go find an environment
that will nurture you,
that will love you,
that will support you.
Maybe you didn't have healthy friendships.
Go find new friends, go cultivate friendships
with artists who will encourage you
and motivate you to be the better versions of yourself.
And if you had somewhere that you love,
you have incredible dance friends, that's amazing.
You have a chance now
to make those relationships even stronger.
You have a chance now to
(exhales heavily)
really bolster your technique.
Take more classes, drop a couple levels,
go back to the basics.
You guys, I cannot stress enough
how incredible fundamental classes are.
Ballet one, jazz one, lyrical one.
like just go back to the roots.
Go back to the start of your technique,
whatever style that may be for you
and really Polish what you have.
I love taking beginning ballet.
I love it.
Because it gives me a chance to slow down,
it gives me a chance to
(breathes loudly)
breathe into what I'm doing,
and not be so focused on being perfect,
doing the most amount of turns out everyone,
being the most flexible.
With these advanced levels there's this inherent sense
of competition,
and I think competition can be really healthy
and lovely sometimes.
But I also think that beginner classes
are good for you.
It doesn't matter even if you're professional.
So let go of your ego in that sense
of like, what looks good on paper?
Oh, she's in jazz three
and lyrical four and ballet five.
Okay, so what?
It doesn't matter.
You can be the most stunning dancer in ballet one.
So let go of your ego and allow yourself
to kind of look at this as a fresh experience
to lay a more solid foundation down.
Both in your technique and in your artistry.
Guys above all, I would say it's okay to take a break.
It is.
And this is coming from a dancer, a teacher,
a choreographer, a dance YouTuber, all the things.
I am in the dance world,
and I'm telling you it's okay to take a break.
If your body is hurting, recuperate your body.
You don't drive yourself into the ground,
it's definitely not worth it.
You have to think of things in a sustainable fashion.
So if you want to dance for the rest of your life,
be kind to your body
and sometimes that means taking a break.
You can stay active through yoga,
through Pilates,
through barre classes, whatever.
Go play a sport if you love sports that's fine.
If you have an injury nurture it.
Let it heal so that you can continue moving.
Dance will always be there
for you when you're ready to return.
But when you are ready to return,
focus on open-mindedness, focus on acceptance
and focus on letting go of that ego
and allowing yourself to start over.
It's okay to start over,
it's never too late to start over.
Dancers our quote of the day,
our quote of this episode is once a dancer, always a dancer.
So whenever you're doubting yourself
and you think returning is going to be X, Y, and Z,
and it's not gonna be good
and I'm going to suck
and blah, blah, blah.
Once a dancer, always a dancer.
It's in your body, it's in your heart,
just trust in yourself, trust in the process
and just allow it to take over.
Let go.
Dancers I love you still very much,
I'm so thankful for all of you who are allowing
the brand Miss Auti to continue growing.
We have such beautiful things in the future,
I can see it so vividly.
And I'm just really thankful that all of you are part of it.
I do have another workshop coming up in August,
so make sure you're following me on Instagram @missauti.
So that you're just up to date on all the events,
all the classes I'm teaching,
private lessons that I'm offering,
all of those things are on Instagram.
So make sure you're on there.
And that's it.
I love you guys so much.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Dancers' Corner.