Extension of self

Sometimes just dancing is hard enough. 
But then, we go and add props.

Every prop has a mind of it's own.  It doesn't matter if it is swords, veils, fans, canes or any other tool we use.

At the beginning of the year I took a hooping class.  I hadn't picked up a hula hoop since I was a child.   The instructor for that class taught an important lesson in all of this.  As we stood there with our hoops picked up and ready to spin them around...  she told us to let go and let them fall to the ground.
She joked that this was our first real trick.

I happened to find a whole bunch of truth in that, it changed the way that I looked at all of my tools.
I have applied that logic to everything I have picked up again since then.... To pick up my prop and drop it.  Just to remind myself that not everything is going to go as planned and sometimes gravity gets a say so in the works.

The next bit of advice came from working with a static prop.  That advice has been to carry it around with me constantly, until when it is not there, I notice it's absence.
Again a large amount of truth with that one. It makes the prop an extension of my body, part of me.

Now these two pieces of advice may not work with every prop that we use as dancers.  Can you imagine walking around a downtown area with your sword (and face it, some of them are dangerously sharp). It's not for the funny looks that you would get from the public, but instead, having someone make a panicked call to the local police....
What exactly would you do with your veil?  Besides wear that gorgeous piece of silk as a scarf? 
Taking it everywhere would work with a cane...  maybe not the thin bamboo canes with the sparkle tape, but a good solid wooden one...  Take a stroll and swing it around.  It's treated more "normally" than swinging a sword.


This brings me to the best bit of advice that I can give.  If you can't take the item with you, then play with it every chance you get. 
The more familiar you are with your prop of choice the more cool and confident you will look when you are dancing with it.
Give your prop a name, make it personal..  Like a trusted friend.
These tools we use are our dance partners.  If a ballroom dancer stuffed her partner in the wardrobe and only took him out for performances, how polished would they look moving together?

My point.... exactly.