Mindset Is Everything
Today marks exactly three months since I set off on my journey to Los Angeles as part of the Erasmus programme for young entrepreneurs. It gave me the opportunity to develop both my dance and entrepreneurial skills. I am very grateful for this opportunity and for the partial financial support I received through the programme. Within the programme, it is possible to travel to the USA for a maximum of three months, while in Europe, the programme can be completed for up to six months.
However, I already knew that when it came to developing my skills in dance, as well as my entrepreneurial skills, the places that interested me the most were in the United States, Los Angeles or New York, both of which are considered the birthplaces of American dance industry.
The programme to the USA was initially launched as a pilot project, and I applied for it back in 2024. Unfortunately, it was suddenly closed shortly before I was supposed to leave, and I had no certainty that it would be reopened. I therefore started considering the European alternative as well. Then, about a year later, I received the news that the programme for the USA had been reopened. I did not hesitate and immediately started taking care of the necessary paperwork.
I reached out to a potential host organisation in the USA, where I was supposed to complete my programme. In my case, it was Teresa Espinosa, a dancer, choreographer and mentor for creatives, whom I had already connected with through her online programme for dancers and other creative people. Teresa agreed, and I could start working on the necessary documents. Once I had put together my business plan and the outline of our collaboration, we received the green light from the European officials who approve the programme relatively quickly.
We planned the exact dates, and I was finally able to set off on my dance journey to the biggest dance hub in the world.
Now, after months of intensive dance training and developing my entrepreneurial skills with Teresa, I am starting to look back on how this experience has enriched me, how it has changed me, and who I am becoming because of it.
As part of my programme plan, I visited dance studios and immersed myself directly in the heart of the dance scene. One of the first things I heard in a class was something along the lines of: "dance is about your mindset".
The dance scene in Los Angeles is highly competitive, not in the sense that dancers are hostile towards one another, as I have experienced in the Czech environment and communities I grew up in, but in the sense that there is an enormous number of dancers with an extremely high level of skill.
Marty Kudelka, Justin Timberlake’s choreographer, who also happens to have Czech roots, said during one of his classes that simply being in the room, even if you were only watching, was like watching elite athletes train. That is how high the level is.
It is an incredible experience to share the space and energy in the same moment with people who are so talented and highly trained.
And coming back to the idea of mindset, one of the first things I realised and something that is different from the environment I grew up in is that when you make a mistake, in this case, for example, when you cannot learn a choreography because you may not yet have enough skills or experience and the choreography is simply too advanced for you, it does not mean that it is the end. It does not mean that you are bad dancer, that you are not good enough, that you do not have enough talent, or that you should not be doing it. It is simply part of the learning process, and it is something I can continue to improve at.
Personally, I was brought up with the idea that you either have talent and you do something, or you do not have talent, so you do not do it and probably should not do it. In this mindset, there is no room for consistent work on a particular skill or for the possibility of improving over time.
I think it is a huge gift when you realise that you are allowed to make mistakes and that they are part of the journey towards excellence.
Mindset becomes especially important when we face a challenge and have to decide how we are going to treat ourselves in that situation. And this is something I learned particularly well in Tobias Ellehamer’s classes. My friend says, “If you know two steps from his first class, that’s already an achievement.”
And then it is important to stay consistent, not let the initial failure discourage you, and keep showing up again and again and again and again.
When I went to my first class with Marty, surrounded by some of the best dancers in the world, I told myself that the first choreography I was learning from him was like the first pancake.
You know how the first pancakes are? They often don’t turn out very well. I had quite a few of those first pancakes, but by showing up consistently, I started to feel myself improving, and the pancakes started getting better, at least in my eyes :).
To be continued...
With Love,
Jindriska
Comments