Fusion Pointe Dance Studio

The devil sends a bad report

May 14th, 2008

A funny thing happened to me today… I got a call from a student I had a few years ago. The funny thing wasn’t that she called me. The funny thing is this was a student who, well, didn’t really like me very much. She had all the options in the world for dance training but she stayed at the studio I was teaching at. Her mother didn’t care for me either. She often accused me of beig smug, calculating and arrogant. They thought I was over opionated about the industry I’m in and what it takes to make a professional career happen. This student is now 25 has finished up her BA in theater with a focus on dance and is now in a major production on Broadway. She asked me how the enrollment for my workshop was and proceeded to say that any advance dancer that didn’t come to it was waisting a great opprotunity. I agreed with her on that. It was very reassuring to hear from someone who I always tought hated me.

She told me that she was thinking of me the other day and found our website on line. She called to tell me thank you and that she was sorry for all the things she said. I was moved. I hadn’t forgoten her but didn’t expect that she would be one to pursue a dance career. She told me that all my training and advice really paid off. She asked me how we were doing and I explained to her all that is happening and that I still have those who don’t like me and spread bad reports about me. This young lady, a christian, told me something I have been saying for several days now… “Eddy, the devil sends a bad reprot.” Thats so funny to me.

I know that I have a personality that rubs people the wrong way sometimes. Shoot people may not even know why they don’t like me… They just don’t. The beauty of it is I know that God has a reason he made me this way. I am asked all the time why I came to Roswell NM. I had the chance to go back to LA. If I did I would have work today on major projects. So why Roswell. Why this little town where people are interconnected so tight that you could be sitting with the cousin of the lady you just cut off in the parking lot, and not even know it. Why Roswell??? My answer is always the same. GOD!

God sent me to Roswell for a reason. He has given me a vision of what he wants me to do here. He has equiped my with years of training. He has provided me with all the work experience needed to make me more experienced than my competition. He has blessed me with great talent. He put me in places and in front of people in the dance industry who would model for me that way that this business really is. God put me in a family that was military. My grandfather was a top ranking officer in the airforce during the cold war. My grandmother ran his house with an iron fist. I was raised to have my own mind and not be afraid to voice my own opinion. Even if that opinion isn’t popular. I was taught by my parents to respect authority but not to necessarily go along with it just to get along. I learned very early that I was different. I was the only guy on my football team that spent his nights after practice in tights at a ballet school. I was taught not to conform to the norm and to live my own life. My voice was heard in my home growing up and my parents often asked me what I thought about any given topic. God put me in a place where he knew I would become a vessel fit for the one thing He wants done here. So I will not be overly appoligetic and I am not going to do business as usual here.

I don’t know if He has sent others here to do what I am doing. If He did they failed in their task. I wont fail. People see this studio we opened as the start and finish of what we are doing. I have shared my vidion with people and I am sure alot of people think I am a little nuts. There are people who flat out don’t believe. But there are alot of people that do. See Noah had to build an ark. Joseph dreamed he would rule over his fathers house when he was the younger brother, Moses had to free his people, Jashua had to dominate the promise land and Jesus raised the dead. The thing that these men had in common was that all of them had the devil sending bad reports about them or to them.

I know that I have rubbed people the wrong way here. I have spoken my mind and had to appologize for it. I never speak with the intention of doing harm so I don’t really give much thought to it afterwards. I know that there are people who don’t like me… And praise God they don’t. Not everyone liked Jesus. Even His own friends denied him and jumped off the ride when the thought it was getting to bumpy.

A wise man once told me… “If you think you are walking in the will of God and you never hear a bad report, then you probably arent. If you aren’t sure if you are walking in the vision God has for you and you hear people are saying bad things about you, you probably are. The devil will always send a bad report.” So praise God.

Praise God for the people who say that my workshop is not real. Praise God for all of the people who are telling everyone they talk to not to come to my studio. Praise God for all the rumors that we are not going to be open long. Praise God for all the chatter that my students hear from their peers at school. Praise God for all the lies that people say about me not making up my own stuff. Praise God for the fact that when I do use material from other artists they are cool enough that I feel comfortable asking themand I get permission first. Praise God that He gave me enough creativity to teach origional material as I make it up in class. Praise God for the people who don’t believe in my vision, and for those who do and are helping me. Praise God that He put us in a this place at this time to usher in change. And praise God for allowing the bad report to come across my ear so that I know for a surity that I am walking in His will and under His annointing and direction. Praise God that there are very influentual peple that are supporting and believing God with us.

Another man I have met when I moved here that I respect more than anyone else, save only 2 others, said to me recently… “Great men aren’t great because they don’t make mistakes, or because they never have trouble on the road to greatness. Great men become great throught their mistakes and on the problem filled journey.” My grandfather would never consider himself a great man. I, however, do consider him a great man. He was a life long warrior. He served in WW2 and Korea. He was battle hardened. If you look at any high ranking officer you will see a man that has made mistakes, maybe lost lives due to his choices and orders. Look at him close and you will see his scars from many years of struggle. This is how God makes us great men and women.

So devil thank you for sending the bad report. Thank you for affirming to me that I am walking according to Gids will. Thank you for people telling “everyone they talk to” not to come to my workshop or to my studio. Thank you for telling people bad things about me. Thank you for lieing about my ability and work. Thanbk you for sending slanders about my business. Thank you for sending a bad report. I am more spiritually mature than to be upset. You can’t defeat me. You aren’t powerful enough to stop the work God is doing through me. No weapon formed against me shall prosper and no word spoken against me shall stand. All you have done is proven to me that I am in the right place doing the right thing and that God is going to use me because of my charactor flaws not in spite of them.

Thank you God for choosing me for this task. I will carry it out boldly and with great courage and conviction. I will not be afraid nor will I be dismaid for you are with me. I know that all things are possible for me through Christ who strengthens me. Blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Jesus who has blessed me with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Praise God for the real and true optical visions He has given me of the task I am here for and for the word of confermation He has sent my way to prove that it is real.

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Roswell NM Summer Dance Workshop

April 17th, 2008

Fusion Pointe Dance Studio is committed to offering the most professional and well rounded training available. Our Artistic Director has the real life expierance in the dance industry that noone else in Roswell NM has. We have an extensive network of people in the industry that makes what we offer to our students second to none. Through this network we are able to offer opprotunities that the other studios can’t or wont attempt to match. We have a long list of highly talented professional dancers, Master instructors, and choreographers that are willing to come to Fusion Pointe Dance Studio.

Most dance studios would not be willing to share these opprotunities with other dance schools. More to the point most studio owners are less willing to encourage their students to attend a worksshop, like the one Fusion Pointe Dance Studio is hosting, when it is held at a dance studio other than their own.

At Fusion Pointe Dance Studio we love dance. Plain and simple and we are opening this work shop up to any dancer that wants to register. They will not be required to register at out studio nor will we ask them to leave their current one. We just want the dancers in Roswell NM to see something bigger than what has been offered in Roswell NM Before. Our city has a long tridition on dance. We have a nationally ranked and 4 time state champion dance team at Roswell High School. With all that Fusion Pointe Dance Studio in its first year is going to set a new standard with “Welcome To The Next Level”.

”Welcome To The Next Level”, Fusion Pointe Dance Studio’s firts summer workshop, brings together just a few of the people in its extensive network. We have 4 Very talented artist’s coming to this week long event.

For more information about this event see our website at www.fusionpointedance.com or call us at (575)622-0322. No Schedule information will be given until the time of registration. This will be an all day event for most students and will last all week. Lunch’s wil be provided. Students must bring their own drinks.

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This is so true

March 22nd, 2008

DARRELL SCOTT TESTIMONY Guess our national leaders didn’t expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are
powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness. The following is a portion of the transcript: “

Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.“The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association.
The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain’s heart.“In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don’t believe that they are responsible for my daughter’s death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel’s murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine! was not just a tragedy — it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a
poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage,
You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question “Why?”
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

“Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up,
we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible a s Columbine’s tragedy occurs — politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.“As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two frien ds murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA — I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!

My daughter’s death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!” Do what the media did not - - let the
nation hear this man’s speech. Please send this out to everyone you can.

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The importance of water to the dancer

February 23rd, 2008

By Nicolette Braybrook LISTD (Dip) BSc (Chem) Mast. Nut. & Diet.

Water is one of the most important nutrients required by the human body. In fact, 50-70% of our bodies are made up of water.

Water plays a number of important roles within our bodies. Some of these include:-

Transportation of nutrients
Removal of waste products
Maintenance of regular body temperature throughout different environmental conditions
Maintenance of a healthy bowel, in conjunction with fibre and exercise

Dancers understand that they have a requirement of carbohydrate for energy and a low fat diet for weight control, but tend to forget about one of the most vital dietary requirements…..water!

Perhaps this is because we tend to forget to drink regularly unless we are thirsty, and unfortunately by this time, we are actually starting to dehydrate. It is quite common for dancers to have a poor level of water intake and instead, rely on caffeine containing diet drinks and coffee. Drinks containing caffeine actually deplete our bodies of fluids as the caffeine acts as a diuretic, as also does alcohol. In light of this, dancers should minimise their intake of both caffeine and alcohol containing products.

We lose water from our bodies in several ways. We excrete it in urine, faeces, sweat and in the air we exhale from our lungs. With exercise, the amount of sweat excreted increases dramatically as can the amount of small water droplets in the air we exhale.

In most cases, drinking sufficient fluids prevents the body from dehydrating. The symptoms from dehydration can include:-

Tiredness and lethargy
Decreased performance
Cramping
Fatigue
Nausea and vomiting

Every dancer’s fluid needs, as with energy requirements, is specific to the individual. To avoid dehydration, experts recommend that an average person should consume around 2 litres or 8 glasses of fluid every day, with at least half of this to be in the form of water. Specifically to dancers, they will require more fluids per day due to the loss through dance classes and performances. It is worth understanding that highly concentrated drinks, such as soft drinks, cordials and flavoured mineral waters, take longer to leave the stomach and are also higher in kilojoules.

To monitor and estimate what fluids have been lost, you can weigh yourself prior to a class or performance and then immediately after (prior to rehydrating). The difference in weight should indicate the amount of fluid lost in that given time. For example, if you lose 1kg of weight during a performance, then you should replace this loss with 1 litre of fluids.

To maintain hydration, it is advisable to ’sip’ small amounts of fluid often. The reason for this is that large volumes of fluid can leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable.

In summary fluids, and in particular water, play an extremely important role in the maintenance of our bodies. We should start to try and understand the ramifications of our energy output in relation to our fluid intake. Specifically, as dancers and dance teachers, we should encourage and be encouraged to rehydrate before, during and after classes or performances, to keep our bodies operating at their peak!

Nicolette Aisen (nee Braybrook) is a privately consulting dietitian focussing on the dance field. She is also the owner and director of a dance school in Melbourne, Australia. She is available for group or individual consultation and can be contacted on + 61 3 97469823 or nicobret@mail.austasia.net

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Breathing

February 23rd, 2008

By Dr Kenneth Backhouse OBEBreathing simply means pulling air into the lungs by expansion of their surrounding walls (inspiration) and then blowing it out again (expiration).

The air taken in contains about 20% oxygen and while that air is in the lungs some of the oxygen is removed by attachment to the haemoglobin in the blood, passing in the walls of the alveoli of the lungs, for carriage around the body. At the same time carbon dioxide that has been carried in the blood to the lungs is transferred to the contained air for removal at expiration. For most aspects of daily living the breathing process is controlled automatically but from time to time a more conscious control is needed to take over, as in aspects of dance, speech or singing.

The lungs together with the heart largely fill the chest. Each is somewhat conical in shape, that on the left being smaller than the right because the heart, lying between the lungs, is mainly to the left. Each lung consists of myriads of tiny elastic walled sacs (alveoli) rather like miniature balloons with the blood running through their very thin walls. The alveoli are linked to the outside world through the bronchial tubes to the central trachea and then via the larynx to the nose or mouth. The important thing to remember is that as the alveoli are tiny elastic balloons, the lungs containing them also act as highly elastic balloons. If you blow them up, as you would do in mouth-to-mouth (or nose) artificial respiration then the air is blown out again as from a blown up balloon.

The outer wall of the chest containing the lungs has a firm framework of the bony ribs. These are mounted at the back on the thoracic vertebrae; loop round and down like bucket handles to the front. Here the upper six are linked to the sternum (breast bone) by short costal cartilages and the next four by longer interlinked cartilages that give a more elastic edge to the lower rib margins. Under control of the intercostals and other muscles, the ribs can be raised from the back, increasing the depth of the chest from back to front. At the same time, rather as a bucket handle is lifted, so the curved ribs swing outwards and widen the chest. The result is an increase in volume of the chest and as the lungs follow the chest wall thoracic inspiration occurs. But the chest must also have a floor and this consists of a sheet of muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. This muscle (with a central tendon), the diaphragm, sweeps upwards, from the vertebrae at the back, the rib margins to the side and front and the sternum, forming a dome quite high into the chest when at rest. The dome is rather irregular in shape; quite low under the heart to the front but particularly high beneath the lungs so that when the muscle contracts the dome is lowered so increasing the height of the chest cavity and of the lungs. This aspect is known as diaphragmatic inspiration.

Inspiration requires a positive effort on behalf of the muscles controlling the chest wall to pull out the lungs and so open their alveoli, creating a negative pressure that pulls air in from the outside. Because of the elastic quality of the lungs, if those muscles relax the lungs also respond and, as a balloon, air is blown out. Quiet expiration is just simple relaxation of muscle and the elastic lungs do the work though for deeper and more forceful breathing muscular activity is added.

Although contraction of the diaphragm in inspiration increases the volume of the chest the volume of the abdomen below can not be reduced to compensate. The space can only be found by a compensatory relaxation of the abdominal wall and this occurs in that finely controlled region above the level of the umbilicus, leading to a bulging of the upper abdominal wall on inspiration. Although that aspect of breathing using the outer chest wall can simply be called thoracic respiration that involving the diaphragm is a complex and finely controlled balance between it and the abdominal muscles and strictly speaking should be abdomino-diaphragmatic respiration.

Before continuing it is worth mentioning the pleural cavity that worries many people. It is in fact not really a cavity at all. The lungs are surrounded by a serous membrane the pleura and a similar one lines the chest wall and the two are in contact to allow friction free movement of the delicate lung surface. The pleura secrete a lubricant, much as the synovial membrane in a joint, the very thin layer of lubricant is the only content of the so-called pleural cavity. (It is perhaps worth mentioning that if an opening is made in the chest wall, as may occur in an accident, because of the elastic nature of the lung, it will collapse as a deflating balloon and air from outside will fill what is now a real pleural space.)

For the simple processes of living, breathing is controlled automatically to provide what oxygen is required for the body and also to remove the carbon dioxide. It may seem a little odd but the mechanism is primarily linked to the level of carbon dioxide in the circulating blood and the need to remove this otherwise toxic gas. But in practice, as this is produced by the oxygen being used in tissue respiration in the body, under normal circumstances oxygen intake will balance the carbon dioxide produced and having to be discharged. As greater activity takes place more carbon dioxide is produced, rate and depth of breathing is increased to remove it and this also raises the oxygen intake. But breath is required for other purposes than metabolism, such as generation of the vibrations in the larynx for sound production. The brain takes conscious control of breathing for these purposes so long as the carbon dioxide level does not get too high and the oxygen level too low when the automatic control takes over with a ‘gasp for air’.

Breathing Patterns
In normal active day-to-day living both aspects of breathing, thoracic and diaphragmatic run together in roughly equal proportions of each, though varying from person to person. Obviously physical problems may induce variants, (later stages of pregnancy is obvious), nevertheless the proportion of diaphragmatic breathing in many people may be reduced to virtually nil for no apparent reason. This leaves only a proportion of respiratory potential (thoracic) available. For some reason it is more frequent in women and obviously if respiratory disease supervenes the problem becomes particularly important, as only a portion of respiratory movement is available.

Some years ago when teaching female students in a Physical Education College I commented on the problem. They told me, after examining themselves with their director, that I was talking nonsense. I reminded them that they were all physically active people and suggested that they looked to the ladies in a less physical department. Their views changed and as a result they set out to assess the problem when on school practice. They reported that before puberty girls showed full diaphragmatic breathing as the boys. After puberty the physically active girls continued to do so but many of the less active girls completely changed to primarily thoracic respiration. Why this should be is strange - especially to a male - as it was to my female students but once established it is difficult to break the routine and induce diaphragmatic breathing. It can be a problem in those activities where diaphragmatic breathing is important.

Breathing for dance or song
Diaphragmatic breathing is particularly important for trained singers and other users of voice as well as wind instrumentalists. All these people require a very finely controlled exhalation to induce fine vocal vibrations at the larynx or control of the wind to their instrument. The chest does play an important part in resonance for singers but the finely controlled flow of air needed for the high quality production of voice is induced by the elegantly controlled contraction of the upper abdominal muscles with a balanced relaxation of the diaphragm. So important is this in practice that 80% or even more of breathing may be diaphragmatic.

For those dancers who also sing a complete change of breathing pattern is required, particularly as the quite marked upper abdominal movement required for singing would be less attractive in the usually more exposed dancer’s body. Dance requires good respiratory efficiency with elegance and for this a balance between thoracic and diaphragmatic breathing is important. If you ask the average person to take a deep breath, as for exercise, this usually includes a general lift and expansion of the chest wall. For dance however much of the control of the arms comes from the upper chest and so this must remain free. With the elegant extension of the spine, asked for in dance, this reduces the thoracic curve to some extent and that in turn creates some lift in the rib cage while the dancer should focus on expansion of the lower chest in inspiration. This in turn allows a moderate controlled lowering of the diaphragm while the upper abdominal wall simply appears to flow with the chest but without the bulging seen in singing. In any case, in dance, the focus of the upper abdominal muscles is required for the elegant control of the upper trunk through to port de bras.

But just as control of breathing is important to give quality to voice, so is it used to give colour to dance. At a basic level inspiration plays its part in opening and rising movements and expiration in closing and lowering ones. A different aspect of breath control is taking a deep breath and holding it under pressure to give vital control and strength to the lumbar spine in lifting, so important in pas de deux.