Blog of the Weekend: DanceMind

As you know, the basis of my blog content is observations on the life of a professional dancer, as told by a dancer. I tell funny stories of what happens in rehearsals, sure, but I also post frustrations, questions, the less-than-fun parts of my dancing life. I spew them out, you read them, the end. Wouldn't it be cool if for every blog post, I had a mentor write back with advice, feedback and/or support? Which leads me to this week's blog of the weekend:

DanceMind, a collaboration between Performance Specialist Sana Carapellotti and an anonymous professional ballet dancer referred to only as "Janie." Janie's topics stem from her day-to-day life as a ballet dancer: rehearsals, partners, directors, performances, choreographers, costumes; the good, the bad, the ugly. Sanna responds with honest and objective feedback, advice, and techniques for making the most--and the best-- of any and every situation. Janie writes from a truly anonymous standpoint-- unlike me, since pretty much everyone in The Company knows about my blog habit-- so, lunlike me, Janie can be truly open about what she experiences, even if isn't isn't all sunshine and pretty costumes and ponies. Allow me to share some of my favorite sections with you:

Sanna asks Janie, What can you control-- and what can you not control [within a dance company]? (Janie's response)

Janie writes to Sanna about the whirlwind of showbusiness, especially in terms of having to "jump in at the last minute" for a performance piece (Sanna's response).

These posts in particular really resonated with me, but there is muc, much more where that came from.

I warned Ms. Carapellotti in advance that she would be NFUL's Blog of the Weekend,and she prepared a special post for you all, COMPLETE with a discount on her Stepping to Sleep program. How awesome is THAT? So, head over to DanceMind, read about why sleeping is important (there are reasons other than "so you aren't writing incoherent blog posts at 1am like M. Butterfly"), get Stepping to Sleep -- $10.00 off the retail price, you can't beat it-- and check out all of the wonderful posts between Sanna and Janie.


Now, if you'll excuse me.....I danced three shows today, and I kind of need to go collapse.