Layoff.

Here I am in the wonderful world that we dancers call "Layoff." To some, that may seem like a scary or strange word just as "Retiring" is, and I suppose for the rest of the world we could call it "Break," but there's not really anything glamorous about it. It's a reality of the profession. We do however look forward to it. It's nice to have time off, especially after a long run.

Most dancers collect unemployment for a couple of weeks, travel to see family, take guesting gigs, or in my case (and for the first time,) stay in town and try and save money! I realized that I needed to use these couple of weeks to begin to clear my head and get a bit more organized. To be honest, I believe more of that will happen during the second week! This first week, I am allowing myself to have a vacation. I'm going to check some things off of my Kansas City "Bucket List" such as visiting the National World War One museum and anything else that I can think of. As an artist, I am fully aware of the importance of taking a real break from what I do.

Simply breathing and giving myself the chance to do things unrelated to dance will help me refocus and build up steam to propel me into 2010 as well as the rest of the season. So often, the craziness of my daily schedule drowns out the sights and sounds of the beautiful opportunities that are around me. Many times in my life, I have found the most clarity and the ability to identify open doors that I had no idea were there when I have simply been quiet. Those who know me well know that my definition of "quiet" is anything but quiet for the rest of humanity! Still, I am anxious to see what doors may appear over these next two weeks. Perhaps I will only end up cleaning my apartment and doing laundry, (unlikely) but at least I will be able to sleep in a couple more days than usual.