The past few week’s I’ve been busy judging dance throughout South Africa for the National Eisteddfod Academy competition. Traveling to places like Greenside in Johannesburg, Randfontein, Klerksdorp, Heidelberg and Vanderbijlpark. 

Each location bringing something different to the table, each performer bringing something different to the table.

I’ve been looking at genre’s ranging from Hip-Hop to Street dance, from contemporary to Modern Jazz, from Musical Theater to African Dance and even Ballet.Although all of these genre’s each acquire it’s own unique technique and style, there remains one consistent aspect in all of the dances. It’s something you see in dancers ranging from all ages. This aspect is the ability to let yourself go in your dance.

The art of performing lies not within the technique, the energy nor the choreography but the art of performing lies within the ability to enjoy, to loose oneself and to put oneself in a position of being totally emotionally exposed and vulnerable. 

Once you’ve mastered that ability, techniques and energy will only be the final step to perfection.

There is a difference between a technique driven dancer and a emotional driven dancer. Whilst the technique driven dancer will most likely be the one to make it big rather than the emotional driven dancer, the emotional dancer will be the one to experience the true pleasure of dance. The ideal would be the combination of the technique driven and the emotional dancer. Only then will you be able to experience the true pleasure of dance on it’s highest level, but for all intentional purposes technique alone can’t satisfy any dancer, teacher, choreographer, judge or audience.

So hierdie is my eerstes skrywe vir 2012. Na ‘n besige werkende somervakansie en 3 weke van pret en harde werk met oriëntasie op kampus, het ek weer tyd om agter my rekenaar dit sit. Ek het dit ook goed gedink om bietjie in Afrikaans te skryf, siende dat ons moedertaal soveel lekkerder as Engels is!

Die ou cliché is altyd daar aan die begin van elke Nuwejaar! Ywerig en vol moed begin almal met hulle nuwejaarsvoorneme! Ek was dan natuurlik ook een van daardie ywerige skape wat die trop blindelings navolg met voorneme.

My voornemens het skaars ‘n dag gehou toe ek eerder daarteen besluit het. Ek het lank geswoeg oor die feit dat ek nie kon begryp hoekom ek en ander miljoene mense se voornemens nooit realiseer nie!

Die antwoord was so logies en reg voor my! Almal sien kans vir ‘n nuwe begin! Mense is reg met nuwe besluite, idees en voornemens, solank hulle net dit wat oud en in die verlede is, kan vergeet. Die probleem is egter dat dit nie so maklik is nie.

In laerskool is ons altyd geleer dat as jy klaar was met die dag se werk in jou skrif moes jy ‘n reguit lyn trek wat nou duidelik aandui dat die werk afgesluit is. En daarna begin jy nuut met ‘n nuwe datum en opskrif. As volwassenes net wil onthou om ook eers dinge net af te sluit. Almal wil nuwe datums en opskrifte hê, maar niemand wil eers ‘n lyn na vorige goed trek nie. Jy kan mos nie iets begin as die vorige nie afgehandel is nie!

Ons sien so uit na ‘n nuwe begin dat ons heeltemal vergeet van ons ou probleme! En die probleem met daardie probleme is, is die feit dat dit jou inhaal, want dit gaan nie weg nie!

So my nuwejaarsvoorneme is om nie nuwejaarsvoorneme te hê nie, maar eerder om oujaarsprobleme af te handel en dan ‘n lyn daarna te trek! Eers as dit gedoen is, kan daar met volle aandag en ywer gespring word in ‘n nuwe begin in!

En spring moet jy spring! Want enige begin wat nie dapperheid en durf vereis nie, is nie die moeite werd nie! As jy ‘n goeie begin wil hê dan moet jy spring! Nie almal sien kans om net in nuwe dinge in te spring nie, maar as die oue afgehandel is, hoef jy nie terug te deins nie! Dan kan jy SPRING!

So finally I finished my exams and I did brilliantly (according to me), so one would expect a long vacation to rest and regain strength. But NO! I decided to do some work so that I can extend my CV. And when I say “some work”, I mean a hell of a lot of work. So the week after my exams, I’m going to be DJ’ing at PUKfm93.6, 14 slots in 7 days. Thats 14, 3 hour slots, 2 slots a day, 6 hours a day, 42 hours in total of being behind the microphone. After that I start working at a newspaper a journalist for two weeks. At least after that I get a quick vacation of one week at Ballito then it’s back to Johanneburg to do a week long internship at a national news station. Then it’s time for Christmas, New Year and then I have one week to finish editing some videos before I have to be back on campus. 

Sometimes we overwork ourselves and forget that even though our minds are fast, our bodies can’t always keep up. So it’s wise to sometimes just relax and do nothing. So I’m going to enjoy my week of holidays as much as I can.

So it’s Aardklop time here in Potchefstroom. Aardklop is one of the biggest Afrikaans Culture Festivals in South Africa and all together 180 000 people visit Potch for Aardklop. Aardklop gives me the time to watch some productions and live performances. AS I was watching this production called Gly, I started realizing how blessed I am.

I’ve been chosen as a PUKfm DJ and also the Universities Representative Council. But I’ve been so busy trying to achieve success, I totally forgot about my dreams. Sometimes in life you get so obsessed at being the best or beating someone that you forget what it is you actually want to achieve.

The choices in life I’ve made has brought me to the point where I totally forgot about the bigger picture. So it’s back to the drawing board. Back to the dream. All these extra chances I get are wonderful, but I’m not going to let my dream get ruined by life. Luckily God keeps reminding us of the bigger picture. So it’s back to the dream….

Some people say that success comes from luck. Some people say your environment and surroundings bring success. I differ from both statements. Success comes from within oneself. It may sound like just a corny statement. But it is something that I have been struggling for a long while. Success comes from hard work, sacrifice, patience and being able to start over again and again, never giving up! Success is being able to surprise the people who least expects it. Success is being able to surprise yourself. So take on life and enjoy it… Success comes to those who work for it!

So my most recent facebook status read: “Greatness only comes to those who completely understands the true meaning of greatness.” I posted this status after watching a High School’s Musical (I will not name any names). So trying to look totaaly objective at the musical I was trully dissapointed. Although the screenplay was funny it lacked the basic drama elements like the climax and the denouement. And although some of the actors did a good job, most of them over acted. As choreographer I looked much more critical at the dance. And this dissapointed me the most. The groups wern’t concurrent, the movements were sloppy and not strong at all, and most of the choreography was copied from another school who had a showcase the previous year. But what left me in total awe (and not in a good way), was that the audience(most of them not knowing anything about the performing arts) went on about how great this performance was. I first thought that I was maybe to critical about this but then again I wondered what the word “great” meant. It would be fine if the audience said it was good because it was if you compare it with their previous performances. But saying the word great means that it was good compared to performances that is actually seen in the performing arts world as excellent rated by qualified artists. So you can’t grant greatness to someone who does not trully understand the meaning of the greatness. Greatness can’t be attained if people continue to be uninformed.

So one thing I have learned as choreographer is that creativity isn’t something that you can force. It’s totally impossible for me to choreograph a song from beginning to end in one session. Sometimes working on a schedule I find myself so plain, not creative and unmotivated. I can’t force my ideas to come, they come when I am inspired and this sometimes mean they come late at night or when I’m riding in my car. Creativity is totally unpredictable. Another why I can get my creativity flowing is under pressure. For some reason I can get more than in half an hour before my deadline than a week before my deadline. Strange how it works but that’s creativity for you. So what to do hang on and keep praying that your creativity will come otherwise deadline will get a whole new meaning. So here I go, seven songs in four days. May the creative juices come flowing