Do you space out when your coach is describing (yet again) how to do a particular move? Do you want to just level up already? Do you inwardly (or outwardly) sigh when there’s nothing *new* in class that day?
Years ago, I was studying with a coach who just happened to be a very no-nonsense German lady. She would yell, “NEIN!!!” and whack me with a yard stick every time I repeated a bad habit (I promise it wasn’t as traumatizing as it sounds). I adored her. Why? Lots of reasons, but chiefly because if I even hinted at not wanting to do the “drudge work” on my apparatus, she would look me dead in the eyes and say, “Oh. Is it perfect yet?”
The Joys of Mastery
We do circus for a lot of reasons, but we cheat ourselves if we stay at the superficial “tricks for Instagram” level. Circus is hard work. It’s a LOT of repetition and practice (as Shannon McKenna liked to say to her students, “chop wood, carry water”). There’s a world of difference between learning a move and doing it well. Even when your goal is just to try something new or have fun – I mean, it’s circus, it oughta be fun – reaching for your personal best is intensely rewarding. Self efficacy = joy!
Our brains are hard-wired to crave new things, but did you know that learning and mastering skills can relieve stress, create new neural pathways in the brain (neuroplasticity for the win!), and make us happier? Science says so! Here are some tiny ratties driving cars to adorably illustrate my point.
Have you ever been to ballet class? Now. Have you ever watched a professional ballet class? Notice anything at the barre? You’ll see the same elements you encountered in yours – endless tendus, plies, ronde de jambs, etc. Do you think that Misty Copeland or Mikhail Baryshnikov doesn’t know how to do a f**king tendu? Of course they do. So why do they still do them? Because they understand that there’s never a day when you just magically arrive at perfect. You’re never done. Tendus are not “too easy” for them. They are not too big for their britches to do plies.
So, the next time your coach is going through positioning again, listen deep. Ask yourself if you’re hitting all those elements perfectly (if you’re not sure, ask). Chances are really good that you’re hitting about 50%-75% of your target, which means that you’re not done. Chop wood. Carry water. Love and pull-ups, Laura