Join Christina and Lisa as they talk about the value of dance during COVID and stressful times.
Lisa’s days with dance and music started very early when her Argentinian mother would blast music every morning and her uncle taught her how to dance when she was three or four years old. She did a stint on Broadway and then became a backup dancer.
So performance and being on stage was the permission for her to completely express herself. It was my outlet. The beauty of music is that it allows you to adopt a persona for those three to five minutes that the song plays. It's like you escape into your own world. It's like acting in some ways.
DANCE AND CONFIDENCE
Dance teaches confidence, the more you practice it. It teaches you how to take up space powerfully. Whether you are standing there, speaking and communicating your body language and emotions or the way you actually physically move your body. I think what dance allows you to just try different ways of taking up space and being able to move your body and get lost in the present moment. I think that's the beauty of movement and it doesn't even necessarily have to be dance, for some, it’s running. It gives you a platform to experiment and see what feels good for you. Once I became a mom, I had to rediscover myself in movement. because my body was not feeling the same way. Becoming a mom.
LISA REDISCOVERY THROUGH DANCE
When she was home with her infants she would listen to reggaeton music in the background. She was never into exercise, but if you throw on some music, she could dance for two hours not realizing the time going by. It was a way for me to do something that lifts my spirits. She recalls her first break-up in University and how she turned to dance to cope. She danced for the full four years in university and did classes as a way to stay active and to keep herself happy. It was also a way to socialize So, after that experience it’s become the thing she goes to. COVID was a disaster for her as a mom. She was drinking a lot and so she just started dancing. She went live at 10 o'clock every morning and would dance for 10-15 minutes. That's all she needed to get a boost of energy. She’d get the kids involved and so it was memory building activity together.
DANCE AS A FORM OF MEDITATION
Lisa shares how she uses dance as a form of meditation because it is a way for her to stay in the present moment. One of the powerful things that meditation can give you is it teaches you to focus being present in the moment and getting rid of all the noise and chatter that happens in your mind, that we don't say out loud. Lisa feels this way when she dances. There's literally nothing else that she thinks of. Walking meditations can play a similar role.
DANCE AND COPING WITH MOTHERHODD
Lisa shares that one of the biggest struggles with motherhood, was not anticipating her identity crisis. Part of it came from the pressures of wanting to be a good mom. She didn't know who she was anymore. The only thing that I had that I knew was dance. It was something that made her feel good, even if it was 10 minutes. Dance gave her an outlet to rediscover herself, her body and to learn to love herself again. We discuss postpartum depression and the work that has been done to normalize it and reduce the stigma attached to it.
LISA’s INSTAGRAM
She felt that if she didn’t laugh, she’s going to cry. Motherhood felt very challenging, so the creative and comedic work she did was a relief from the pressure of it all. Lisa turned to social media as a way to meet other moms. Creating content was her way to feel like she had access to the real world.
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