S. Verrett & J. Vickers “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix”
Fear Is Very Useful In Circus (and in Life)
Susie Armitage works at BuzzFeed and tells her experience about fear:
In circus, fear can hold you back, but it’s also very real and very useful. Make a mistake when you’re seriously high off the ground — a wrong wrap, a missed catch — and you could wind up paralyzed, or dead. It helps to be brave, but this is not a good activity for people who jump first and ask questions later.
In circus, fear is obvious and easy to dissect. It’s about self-preservation, rooted in the awareness of possible pain. Of course I cringe when I’m about to hang my entire body weight from one elbow or ankle. Of course my heart races when I climb above a certain height, or when I’m trying to remember if I wrapped the fabric behind my back just once, or twice — because it will make a crucial difference on the way down.
The great thing I’ve learned about fear, though, is that you can train yourself to touch it. I will never be someone who isn’t afraid of anything, who truly doesn’t give a fuck. But when I feel nervous about telling someone what I really think or asking for what I need, I try to picture myself up in the air, head held high, ready to drop.
Photograph by Angela Kohler.
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The Psychology Of Music
10 Tips For Your First Adult Ballet Class
1) Check out the studios website and find their dress code. Most studios require black leotards with either pink or black ballet tights and pink ballet slippers!
2) Wear your hair in a bun (if it’s long enough). Even if it’s not required, your hair WILL get in the way and be detrimental to your focus.
3) Buy ballet tights at an actual ballet store (online, such as Discount Dance or a brick and mortar store), they don’t have the lines running up from the thighs like tights from target or any other clothing store will! Ballet tights are also thicker and more durable = less runs and more coverup.
4) You will be completely confused for your first…many…classes. Ballet changes your entire body, you now have to turn out, hold your arms different, remember a thousand different french words and what they mean, and learn to dance to classical music. Don’t give up! Once you begin to “get it” you will be on top of the world, and remember no one ever reaches “perfection” in ballet, though we never stop striving for it.
5) If a leotard and tights is the uniform, don’t wear underwear! It’s impossible to avoid panty lines in leo’s and people will see your underwear through your tights, avoid this at all costs!
6) Ballet class étiquette: Never talk to your peers during class, and raise your hand if you have a question. Ballet instructors are highly respected and the ballet world is a bit harsher than real world. At Metropolitan Ballet Academy there won’t be a word muttered for the entire three hour class, only focus and intense concentration.
7) If you don’t like feet, you’re in for a struggle – get used to talking, looking, breathing, feet. Being a ballerina is painful and the pain is something that you grow to love.
8) Many ballet studios require certain types of ballet slippers, which should be listed on the website. However, if you have a choice, most ballerina’s choose canvas vs. leather slippers. The canvas slippers show off your point better, and look nice for a longer period of time.
9) Never buy ballet shoes from Payless. Never.
10) Enjoy your class! Even if your overwhelmed, give it a few tries, ballet is an art that is absolutely beautiful and is extremely rewarding, physically and mentally!
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Music Gives A Soul To The Universe
Dealing With Rejection In Acting
First: Focus on the feeling
In order to eliminate something, the first step is always awareness. You may think you’re aware of what rejection feels like, but pay close attention because if you’ve been pained by rejection as an actor, I guarantee you’re missing one VERY important piece of the rejection puzzle. Let’s take a deep dive into it and identify it. The feeling.
Second: Deconstructing rejection
The 5 “Traditional” Stages Of Rejection:
Stage 1: You get the audition.
Stage 2: You start getting excited about the possibility of getting the role and you get attached to the idea of booking it.
Stage 3: You don’t get the role.
Stage 4: You fall into a ditch…A sort of “ditch of emotional despair”. (The punch in the stomach – the THUD we spoke of earlier). And, once you’re down in that deep, dark ditch, it’s hard to get out of it. Eventually, you kind of crawl your way out (hopefully). But it is really hard and it feels awful.
Stage 5: This paradigm of rejection becomes even worse because then you have the dread of falling in the ditch again the next time you audition.
Third: The rejection mistake you don’t know you’re making
You’ve coupled experiencing the EXCITEMENT about the idea of booking the role with the ATTACHMENT to that very idea.
Fourth: Excitement minus attachment equals freedom
Stage 1: You get the audition.
Stage 2: You start getting excited about the possibility of getting the role. You imagine what it feels like to have booked it. You picture yourself shooting it. You hear the director yell action and you begin to play the scene. You revel in the infinite possibilities of what your acting career could look and feel like when you book this role.
Stage 3: You don’t get the role
Stage 4: Since attachment to the outcome wasn’t a part of your paradigm, there is no ditch to fall into.
Stage 5: There is no Stage 5. It doesn’t exist.
Fifth: Rewind. Redo. Rewrite.
If you rewind and rewrite the way you “do” rejection by going back to that excitement feeling but never creating attachment to it, if you don’t get the role it’s not even a blip on your radar.
Sixth: Rejoice despite rejection
You can still experience the excitement. You can still experience the imagination of the possibilities of what could happen — and you should.
Photograph by Marnee Pearce.
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Stunning Palau De La Musica Catalana (Barcelona)
