Be, Do, Have
Originally published at Lane Ellen. You can comment here or there.
This weekend, I spent a lot of time running around preparing for several upcoming events. Like most people who have many interests, I managed to overschedule myself so that I am preparing for many things, all at once, and have soaring expectations for each one of those events.
So, last night I was working on new costuming for an upcoming hafla while listening to a podcast about transforming your relationship with money.
I should have known that such a combo might cause some conflict.
I was listening to this seminar thing, chuckling here and there, sewing fabric onto a new bra. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted for that event, with that song, etc. It would be perfect. Of course, I didn’t have the exact outfit I wanted, so I was making a new one.
I had just finished the trim at the top when the chapter of the seminar came on called Have, Do, Be. The speaker began to discuss how we structure so much of our lives and dreams in a backwards method. We feel we need to have some materials before we can take some action which will allow us to BE something we want to be. We need to have the right shoes before we can join that class to dance so we can call ourselves a dancer.
Just like I needed to have this new costume for a performance so I could perform, so I could be a bellydancer.
The reality is - if we’d just BE what we are, we’d be moved to DO what we have to in order to accomplish our goals, and the things we needed to have would either come, or we’d pick up along the way. Sure, another costume that fits the performance would be ideal - but only if I feel completely comfortable with the performance. But I was approaching it from the idea that once I had the perfect costume, the dance would come - when in reality, it is quite the opposite.
It’s a hafla. I don’t need custom-made costuming for every single performace - cobbling together something from the three rubbermaids in my attic should suffice. What really matters is the dance, is doing it well, praticing, and interpreting the music appropriately. All the rest is bonus.
This can be extended to other things floating around dancers’ minds as well. From costuming, to body image. I’ll really be a dancer when I have this training. I’ll be a good dancer when I have a better body. So many times, one forgets that if one just danced, just put themselves into dance headspace regularly, some of those “haves” might come to us. Fitness, training, inspiration - these things can be gained through regular practice and striving.
This works for most things. If we strive to BE what we want to be, instead of attaining the appearance of what we want to be, we may find that we already have everything we want - direction, inspiration, and even appearance.
I think in some ways, this is a problem with some of the dance performances I’ve seen out there. Often, high quality costuming is a way of masking average or sub-average skill. We automatically view someone as more professional, more skilled, more desirable, by how well they accoutrement themselves. It’s true in the business world, in the music world - it is true of human nature. We judge things first by how they look. So, it is easy to care first about the appearance of our costumes and makeup as part of an image - it’s the first communication with our audience. But it isn’t the most important communication.
By no means am I suggesting that one shouldn’t try to costume to fit the piece. That is integral to performance. One must consider the venue, the atmosphere, the tone, and the image one is working with, as well as the music. This is to say that if your dancing sucks, it really doesn’t matter how cool your corset was.
I don’t need anything to dance. I just have to dance.
Sometimes I just need to be reminded.
Update: Again, PT hits the topic I’m currently writing about. Hers is more survivalist and in your face, whereas mine is more headspace/perspective. Either way, we are both saying similar things: the need to make art (in my case, dance) supercedes the need to have better, new costuming. Sometimes, though, one gets distracted and thinks that the details make more difference than the doing. Not so. The Doing is the Art.