Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Twenty Minutes

What can you accomplish when you just focus for twenty minutes? Twenty minutes a day dedicated to improving your burlesque presentation.

Today I spent twenty minutes just working on glove peels. It's a rare day of humidity in Los Angeles, my hands were sweaty, but I had twenty minutes of glove work on my to-do list. I set the timer on my phone and went to work. In playing around for twenty minutes, I worked out a move that is interesting and dynamic enough to me that I'm going to work it into some new choreography I'm doing in August. There are things to be tidied up, rehearsals to be done. I got it on video so I can reference it for improvement.

It got me to thinking what could be tackled in just twenty minutes a day. We all live busy lives. I talk to people all the time who just don't have time to focus on burlesque yet want to pursue burlesque. I'm going to try to focus twenty minutes each day on burlesque -- outside of answering emails and working on costumes. (Those things are already drilled into my daily routine already.)

What burlesque task can you tackle in twenty minutes?

- Working on stripping out of one garment. Perfect chance to brainstorm!
- Learning a new makeup technique.
- Repairing a damaged costume piece.
- Adding some embellishments to an existing costume piece.
- Assembling pastie bases so you have them ready for the next project.
- Learning a new dance move.
- Working through that one piece of choreography that isn't quite working yet.
- Practicing body angles.
- Perfecting a warm and inviting face for your audience.

Join me in focusing for twenty minutes a day for the next 31 days, will you?

(I spent twenty minutes learning how to better curl my hair a couple months ago. It's paid off quite well.)