Caroleeena's Circles of JoyA Short Building Posture Ritual
It only takes a second to reset optimal posture for movement arts, to build a posture of strength in your full range of motion. You start from the ground up: Feel your weight in your heels. Lift and then place the ball of each foot on the ground, one at a time, under the hips. [...]
Directed Gaze – Directing Energy in Dance
Directed Gaze is a dance concept, a way of directing focus, a way of directing energy. We can make people look at things by looking at them. Don’t believe it? Go out on any street, stop and look up in the sky. Watch what happens. By directing the gaze, the dancer directs both energy [...]
Fire Arts and Safety Class and Weekly Classes
On Sunday, April 22nd, I am teaching a Fire Arts and Safety class that will qualify participants for their License to Burn. This three-hour class begins at 6:00 pm. Each student will get a fire safety manual, and have the opportunity to safety, extinguish fire, and use a variety of fire tools under the guidance [...]
Fire Performance at the new Museum of Natural Sciences
I am very excited to be fire dancing with Mesmerizing Arts at the 24-hour grand opening of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh on Earth Day, April 20th, from 9 pm to midnight. There will be bands and many other activities, including LED performances from midnight to 1 am. They are also unveiling the [...]
The Difference Between “Don’t Give Up!” and “Hang in There!”
Encouragement literally means to give courage. When we are trying to encourage someone, we are much more effective if we use powerful, power-filled, encouraging language, if we speak about what we want to happen rather than what we don’t want to happen. Focusing on what we don’t want, or worse, fear. can create a self-fulfilling [...]
Tandem Hooping
Tandem Hooping is when two people hoop within one hoop. It’s beautiful but tricky to learn. I hope to make a video the next time I hang out with AliCat but, til then, I thought I’d share my thoughts on how to do this in writing. First, use as large a hoop as [...]
Utilizing the Free Hand in Hoopdance
Often when we hoopdance, one hand is busy but the other hand is free. This is never more prominent than with lifts. One hand is doing the lifting and the other hand is just hanging there. We’ve talked about using the hands to do pretty hand and armwork. This idea holds even if it applies [...]
Sculpting a Performance
Performance is more than object manipulation. When paired with music it becomes dance, it becomes story telling with the body. Once we know this, we can create a more powerful performance by pairing it with story telling devices. In this class we discussed sculpting a performance, prepping for that performance, stage technique, and group number [...]
Avoiding Camel Toe (Yup. I said it.)
If you are a female performer or dancer who has to wear leotards or tights and you are concerned that your lady-bits may be more highlighted than you are comfortable with, may I recommend wearing a pantyliner? It prevents crack attacks, doesn’t show through your clothes and will ease your mind even as it allows [...]
Size Matters
I am a total size queen There I said it I like ‘em big Big as I can get ‘em Big as I can manage High as my nipples So fat I can just close my fingers barely Hold ‘em comfortably Big as I can get ‘em and still pull off my favorite moves Yeah I [...]