“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work”. And that’s Stephan King, not me.
I wake up every morning thinking that it will be better than yesterday. I don’t really think that I want to change the world; it’s too much responsibility. It’s like being asked to swallow the sun. It can kill you. And it did. For the longest time, fear stood in my way. Then I decided to focus.
And when I did, despite all the challenges that surround any emerging artist, and all the failure, warnings and doubts. I wrapped up my 3rd short dance film “And so do I”. It’s starring two of my favorite international dance teachers, Jens Bjerregaard and Giulia Barbone. Needless to say, it hasn’t been easy, and I’m becoming more convinced that it never will be. You just get better at dealing with the bitterness of rejections and the disappointment of unanswered calls.
All I needed was patience to keep knocking on doors and kicking down walls. I know I’m doing something different, in a country that doesn’t have a dedicated platform for the kind of work I do, but I decided that whenever I’m falling, I’ll make sure to fall forwards; and that’s the key to winning. One day.
I knew the rest of the world is not all sunshine and rainbows, so it doesn’t matter where I am. Strength comes from within and strength for me is discipline. Persistence can be rewarding. Countless are the times when I gave speeches to the deaf and performed to the blind, but I never thought of it as lost words, better yet a failure. I think of it more as a mental exercise. The more you talk about your art, the more you understand it. And that’s clarity. Clarity is setting your mind to join forces with the same power that lit the stars.
I don’t want to operate on some default settings or plan the rest of my life according to what everyone around me may think is the right way to go. Each person is wired differently, operates with potentials differently, uses their imagination differently; even soulmates and identical twins perceive success from different angles. It’s probably easier to give up and say I’m far from getting there. But no one gets “there”. “There” is perfection, and the thing with perfection is that the closer we think we get to it, the farther it becomes.
Take dance for instance. It’s highly addictive because there’s always more you can do, stretch a bit further, jump a bit higher, so you don’t limit yourself to “trying”; trying presumes failure. You either do, or you do not. And there is no greater glory than self-satisfaction. No matter how satisfying the beautiful comments you get could be. If you don’t believe it’s magic, moving forward would not be an option and life would be impossible to live. Don’t let the risk of failure keep you from loving what you do. Failure is part of an inevitable pattern, and going through it makes you who you are. I’m 24, and I have so much yet to give.
All I’m looking for are souls ready to receive.
