Posts Tagged "dance"
Teaching Oneself
Have you ever been to school? Been taught anything by anyone?
If you have, chances are you’ve had some good, some bad, some moderate learning experiences.
Have you ever taught? To a friend, to a co-worker, to a child?
If you have, chances are you were able to remember those things in a much better way. Enjoying it the whole time.
I have been attending an RMT (Registered Massage Therapy) course recently, and the teacher is a super entertaining, awesome human being and a natural at everything: drawing, humor, simplifying difficult concepts into baby food that people can swallow and even into micro-organisms for the former-scientists in the classroom.
He recently talked about what he calls “active memory”, the first time I’ve heard of such a concept, where he suggested in examples about it where you can make flash cards, with the question, for example:
What is the origin, insertion and action of a trapezius? And you would have the answer on the back.
Of course, there is always another layer behind what people say. And he later went on to say that “active memory” has nothing to do with flash cards, but the ability to teach. He even suggested that one could teach oneself. Obvious, yes?
And then I realized, on my drive home. Who’s the best student I can always teach? The answer, was myself!
I was quite surprised. Though I knew what he meant at the time, because isn’t teaching yourself just… “learning”? It’s something more.
A little more conscious. A little more love is needed to teach oneself, or myself. Basically, really be able to teach yourself in the way that isn’t just habitual.
For example, brushing your teeth.
Do you really know how to brush your teeth? Can you explain to a 5 year old, why and when is the best time to brush? Do you just say to him or her, the little wee thing, just put the toothpaste onto your toothbrush, and start brushing?
Then make a slightly sarcastic joke, which only you find funny, about working on tying their shoes tomorrow (leaving abruptly).
Or do you tell them kindly, it’s fantastic that you are learning to brush your teeth by yourself! When you brush your teeth properly, you can not only look better to your friends and family, but also you feel and smell better.
You remind them about how, didn’t you know? An apple once a day makes the doctor go away. And relate it to how when you eat an apple, the natural fibers actually clean your teeth!
And you keep sharing your knowledge, about that time you had a funny teeth brushing incident where you used your little brother’s toothbrush and started freaking out because you were still afraid of germs at the time.
More and more, about this and that, flossing and brushing twice a day and balabalabla.
To see their eyes widen, as they realize you care about them and that they will always remember these funny life stories combined with little lessons you shared with all your heart. It also takes something out of your essence to give to them, courage that your jokes, your information and how you present yourself is received well. Teaching well requires trust. Which can be hard, especially when their attention spans are about as focused as a dog surrounded by bone-like toys. Maybe the kid didn’t listen to the joke, or only heard the joke, but that doesn’t matter. What made it a great teaching and learning thing for everyone was that everyone had a great time, and learned as much from the experience as they could absorb at the time.
To teach yourself like this, it’s also a beautiful thing.
What were some of the best experiences where you taught yourself something? Think.
Maybe it was how to talk to a girl you were attracted to without being nervous. Some people (like me), just talked to/ asked out a 100 attractive girls in a row, in a span of a month, and was done with it.
How is this related to teaching kids teeth brushing?
Well, it just is.
While I talked to these random girls I met on the subway, on the street, at Chapters, in the library, at the school cafeteria or in the shopping centre, I kept teaching myself like so:
“Hey sweetheart, how about a date?” I already have a boyfriend (while looking at me up and down humorously).
It was awesome, I didn’t actually want to date them, as I chose to be busy with school and work, and most of them already had boyfriends. Or at least that’s what they told me. Some of them actually invited me to a bar or parties they were going to that night or to go to their cottage with their friends.
I regret not having enough courage at the time to say yes to any of these events, especially since I was deathly afraid of alcohol, but those are stories for another time. Soon, I promise 
Anyways, what made this a great learning experience for me? It took courage, and trust that the conversations would go over well and that it would be a great time for everyone involved. Not all of them did, some didn’t care and didn’t respond, but it was clear that everyone had as funny or as eye opening experience as they could receive at the time.
It’s just fun to teach yourself. You develop your capacity to express more love. And I find I like to separate teaching oneself and “learning”. It’s not the same thing. One is putting everything on the line and putting yourself out there and giving it your all, and the other is related to boredom and grind.
Choose what’s on your menu, but for me the choice is obvious.
Read MoreA Good Teacher
I started breakdancing around half a year ago. When I started, being way more reckless and trying to show off with very limited technical ability, I was the student that nearly fell on my face many times, asked maybe one too many stupid questions and overall brought elements of mucho-randomness into the class.
The teacher was a high energy, high powered guy who plowed through us students, technique after technique after technique, always giving us the best he had, the methods he used to teach was just crazy… basically a non-stop hour and a half lesson, maybe 20 seconds on the basics (six-step, Brooklyn style top rock) straight to ass-whooping knee-twisting, elbow-bending madness that usually led to increased awesomeness in everybody involved.
I had a great time, attended every class until… the teacher retired. Now, it was a funny time when he left, because I strongly felt that it was just when I was at my peak of learning, just when I was getting good. There was another teacher that subbed sometimes and he took over. It wasn’t the same, he focused way more on the basics, which was awesome because I had none, but he didn’t really “LOVE” breakdancing, his preference was more about locking, tutting and waving.
When someone who LOVES what they do, and is so grateful about getting to teach you, it shows. It changes things. And when that person is obviously all about encouraging you to be unique, to follow him, but only to a certain point because he knows you need to do your own thing to shine, that’s something else. Now that’s not to take away from the basics teacher, but sometimes in your life you meet someone who just blows you away with their awesomeness, and that’s the guy I’m talking about today.
After one particularly disappointing class with the replacement teacher, where I basically was not taught anything at all, I didn’t come to any more breakdancing classes. Granted, every other class aside from that one class the teacher was technically awesome, so I really should let it slide. But for me, I feel like for some things, for massive improvement (which is what I’m often all about), I have to feel that connection with my teacher in order to learn amazingly.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. This is basically how a super good teacher who encourages the heck out of you to be the most unique and best you can be brings everything out of you and then some, and can even inspire you to get into the flow. A “good” teacher only teaches you what’s necessary to get the job done. That’s the energy you get from them. You have to go with their flow, you have to go with their preference. You get the vibe from them that they feel that “their time is valuable”, they only have so much time for you… that everybody’s got a role to play, that everybody’s got an agenda. You hear vague excuses from these “teachers” of how “it obviously takes longer to grow in area x or y, or that something can’t be done or they don’t have the energy…”.
Today that amazing teacher came again. The class was phenomenal, it was so good, I took my dance not only in breakdance to a new level but felt that every single movement of my body improved just about 10, 000 x higher. As I breakdanced today, I was completely in the flow, I had many compliments from the man himself about how I improved massively since he last saw me. Well, that’s definitely true, but what he didn’t realize was my massive improvement came to shine through on that day, heavily inspired by him. Everything else before was just a set-up.
So I guess if you want to get amazing at anything, simply do what’s obvious. Get an amazing teacher. Simple enuff 
New Creation: BFF – Minty Fresh Vol. 1 – DJ Mix
Bam! Another new creation brought to you through SpiritSentient. My brother Nick and I have recently begun our foray into DJing/Mixing. We took our love of music to a new level. I love it because I’m able to use my innate abilities for attracting, remembering, knowing, and organizing huge libraries of amazing creations/media during the process of song-selection. I also get to be extremely creative and intuitive and artistic with blending, effects and transitions. Nick brings his amazing analysis, intellect, detail-orientation, and brilliant technical skill to the table. It’s so beautiful. This is our first publicly released mix, so please be gentle, though I feel really good about it. It’s kind of a gritty, edgy, interesting mix of mainstream electro/dance tunes, sprinkled with just enough oddballs and rarities to keep it interesting. If that’s not your style, never fear, we have an awesome breezy summery mix planned! We’re thinking right now to offer something valuable and unique to the DJ world by focusing on rare/obscure/underrated/under-known songs which are amazing and would definitely do well being brought to light for people open to them. I’ve always loved sharing and introducing people to new music they’d otherwise not have the chance to hear. I love using my (practically psychic!) knowledge of what people will like and enjoy to cater to their tastes perfectly. <grin>
So here we go, Brothers Fonceca Forever (the adorably fun DJ group also known affectionately as BFF) presents:
BFF – Minty Fresh Vol.1 [71mb, mp3 + cue]
Tracklist:
01. Juno Reactor – Nitrogen Pt. 1
02. Prodigy – Spitfire
03. Crystal Method – Trip Like I Do (Tom Real vs The Rogue Element Remix)
04. Daft Punk – Around The World
05. Mr. Miyagi – Pick Your Poison
06. Smashing Pumpkins – 1979 (Crystal Method Remix)
07. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle (Crystal Method Remix)
08. Klaas – Feel The Love (Klaas Increase Mix)
09. Stonebridge – Close to Heaven
10. Overseer – Skylight
11. Pulsedriver – Night Moves
12. Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar
13. Moby – Slipping Away (Axwell Vocal Mix)
14. Ulrich Schnauss – Nobody’s Home
Total Running Time: 44min 38sec
We’d like to thank the amazing artists who composed the beautiful original songs, and I have linked as many of them as I can here: Juno Reactor, Prodigy, Crystal Method, Daft Punk, Mr. Miyagi, Smashing Pumpkins, New Order, Klaas, Stonebridge, Overseer, Pulsedriver, Chemical Brothers, Moby, Ulrich Schnauss
Enjoy!
"For the first time, I can honestly say I am truly living. Thank you Jay for empowering me to live the life I have imagined." - Tori Mongrain, Artist
"Jason, an hour with you is easily worth $700.00, thank you. I asked everything and you answered me brilliantly." - Arthur Hung, Dancer
"Being around [Jason] is being around happiness and goodness, and everyone would do well to be where he's going." - Kheiran Khan, Gamer
"Jason is truly a visionary. He is what I would call a 'Master Motivator'." - Darryl Cole, Real Estate Agent
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