Summary

The website content describes the author's journey of rediscovering joy through dance, overcoming self-judgment, and embracing movement as a form of healing.

Abstract

The author shares a personal story of how joining a supportive Facebook group for women led to a transformative experience with dance. Initially feeling awkward and self-conscious, the author learns to dance for personal joy rather than perfection or performance. Reflecting on past experiences with dance, the author acknowledges a shift from dancing for fun to seeking approval from others, which diminished the joy of movement. After years of inactivity and gaining weight, the author finds inspiration in dance classes, a supportive online community, and the teachings of movement experts like Kellita Maloof and Erin Stutland. The author emphasizes the importance of dance as a means to process emotions and reconnect with inner joy, ultimately leading to a more positive and energetic life.

Opinions

The author initially felt awkward and concerned about judgment from others when dancing without pre-choreographed steps.
Over time, the author learned to be kinder to themselves and focus on the joy that dancing brings.
The author reflects on a past where dance became more about impressing others than enjoying the movement, leading to a loss of personal fulfillment.
The author expresses gratitude for the support received from online communities and dance instructors, which helped in rediscovering the joy of dance.
The author believes that dance serves as a powerful tool for emotional processing and personal healing, describing it as "movement medicine."
The author encourages readers to find their own source of joy and to engage with it regularly, suggesting that this practice is essential for maintaining well-being in stressful times.

I Dance to Feel Joy

A Tiny Life Moment of finding healing through movement

The moment

It all started from participating in this super supportive Facebook group for women all over the world in November 2019. The fun rule is to post a video of myself dancing in any way to any music so that we can witness all of us dancing ‘together’ in the group.

At first, it felt quite awkward dancing by myself without any pre-choreographed steps. Will others judge that I’m too fat? Or that I dance sloppily? Or that I’m weird and awkward?

Gradually, I finally managed to be kinder to myself and focus on reconnecting to my joy through dance, like in this little video!

Reflection

I used to be very active in learning hip hop dance in my University’s dance club more than two decades ago!

It was so much fun soaking up newly learned dance moves, training, performing, and even competing occasionally! But as my dance mates and I spent increasingly long hours training ourselves for dance shows and competitions, I became more perfectionist about the way I dance. The main goal switched to impressing the audience and judges, and it felt lame to dance just for fun.

Over the past 20 years, I gained weight and didn’t dance as often anymore. My body became more rigid as I magically turned to furniture for my 3 young sons, continually sitting on the floor to watch them play, and allowing them to sit on my back and my lap. I’m blessed to have my 3 sons as part of my life, but I felt dull inside without my movement medicine.

When they became old enough to take dance classes, I felt so sad that I had to wait outside the studio and not take part.

Eventually, I started joining dance classes myself! BingTing, my K-pop dance teacher, is super patient and encouraging as a teacher, and inspirational as she creates her K-pop dance covers with her friends too! My creaky joints started to move more fluidly again as I tried my very best to execute the dance moves! Every dance felt more like a kungfu class to me as I exhausted my weak muscles, trying to dance more gracefully.

But oh! I started smiling more as music and dance came into my life again!

More support came towards me as I gravitate more towards dancing in my daily life!

I happened to see this online Facebook group — Dance Yourself Free for women all over the world. I love this sisterhood when we encourage and uplift one another through the universal language of dance.
Shortly after that, I got to know this amazing Showgirl Shaman, Kellita Maloof, who taught me movement as a form of medicine. Through her potent online workshops, she taught me how transformative dance could be when we dance to be seen in the way we want to be seen, and not merely to impress our audience.
I experimented with a few online membership sites that teach dance workouts and found my way to Erin Stutland’s mantra-infused exercises! I love her the gentleness she exudes that is so grounding and empowering. Her signature Soul Strolls get me grooving so quickly!

I’m so grateful to use dance as a way to process my feelings and reconnect to my profound joy again! Dancing now energizes me and helps me become a happy mom instead of a cranky mom!

Here’s another mini video of a recent dance class I took. I’m dressed in yellow in front :)

Lessons

In these stressful times, it is so vital to find what reconnects us back to our natural state of joy.

To me, dancing has become my daily dose of joy after I finally release my harsh judgments and simply dance for the sake of dancing!

What brings you joy? Do you do it often?

I hope you find your ‘medicine’ and keep taking it regularly!