Day 52 | Vermont: 3 days to go

Good morning mi Gente. Day 52 of soberness of alcohol and smokes free. Yesterday the kuduro was so amazing it broke my body after the plane. I came home, sat down at my office, tried to do a little bit of work, but you know what, my bed was calling my name. I had to finish my orange juice freshly squeezed, drink my chamomile tea, and call it a night. Feels good to fall asleep before midnight and wake up energized the next morning, ready to do some damage.

“It takes nothing to join the crowd, it takes everything to stand alone.”

That was my #qotd. On that note, I’m gonna start by telling something that actually personally happened. One thing that I noticed over my course of dancing: it’s easier to be fake, and really hard to be real. I’m not really saying that there is more fake people than real people, but that’s not far from the true. When me and Flavie started dancing, before we went to compete for Africadançar, we did a video that went viral, probably some of you guys saw it, probably some of you guys didn’t see it. But in that video we were not dancing as we dance today: we had a lot of flamingo influences because of what was done around us at the time. That said, one of our students at the time, named Catherine, taped the video and the video went viral, I’m talking half a million views. I’ve lived in Canada for 13 years, now. Before we went to Africadançar, 4 years ago, my Angolan influences were not as strong as they are today. At Africadançar I met a lot of real Angolans, they put me against the wall, and they explained it to me the importance of keeping it real, the importance of protecting our culture, the power I had and especially not letting the internet influence me. I wasn’t aware of that. Because what I saw around me, of course what I saw what people were doing wasn’t the kizomba I learned growing up. But the lack of experience in that department made me also now know better. And the lack of influences around me, Angolans in Montreal, we like a hundred only, and the ones that really know how to dance don’t show up on the dancefloor or share their knowledge, so I couldn’t get inspired or learn. Therefore, I repeat my experiences were not the greatest. Having said that, my dancing was not what it is today, of course, it was influenced by other sources, living away from my country for so long, and getting informed of what it is by the media, and doing things for the likes, getting my inspiration from many other dances, using moves where people’s reactions would be a wow-guaranteed and using movement where I already knew I was going to get the emotion of the spectators away from the real McCoy which is promoting my culture as it is.

Now that I have chosen to get better informed, and surround myself by good influences, aka other instructors around the world that dance real Angolan kizomba, and look at my culture as it is, instead of going for the likes and looking at the real dance instead of fishing for compliments, I was able to make a switch, I would not call it a switch I would call it an adjustment, as I was melanin my dancing into the African culture the way I was born to do.

Well today it is a totally different story because of the influences I am surrounded with, BY CHOICE, and the skills I have obtained, BY REPETITION, I can totally see it clearly now, that I was not doing enough to portray my dance as it is. I am Angolan to the bone, I walk and talk Angolan, my culture is me, because when I walk I have 3 bazillion ancestors behind my back. Any Angolan that meets me knows I am Angolan because it is my blood. Any Angolan that meets me wonders how I could still talk the slang of Angolan of today despite being gone for so long and act like an Angolan. Angolan culture is me. Some of them are so embarrassed to be an Angolan they call me a matumbo. A matumbo means the nigga that came from the jungle and never accepted to be colonized, and yes I am Matumbo. Fuckers. I portray my culture with every breathe. Always have. But my dance? That needed the adjustment I’ve been talking about. Now, looking that way, how many things did we have to adjust just to fit in with the crowd, Mi Gente? How many not realistic ideas and things that we know do we have to adjust just to fit in? That is suffering without knowing. How many fake smiles do we have to wear just to fit in with the crowd. Today when I smile, I am not saying I am totally cured, but at least I feel I am on the right direction of the real me. Through the dancing and through life. I no longer need to smile with motherfuckers, that I know that they don’t like me. I no longer need to be friends or even facebook friends with the people that I know that have talked shit about me, just because they are doing the same business that I do, I need to be politically correct. Fuck this shit! I no longer need fakeness in my life. And that comes from a real and natural spot, not by force. Now I can even say no to offers because they know that I am relevant because of my followers base.

So to my folks and my people that really like me for who I am, I salute you because I do the same to you. And I will repeat my quote of the day: “It takes nothing to join the crowd, it takes everything to stand alone.” But you must practice and exercise this message, because it is one of the things that can set you  free from fakeness. Be real to yourself even if everyone around you is not. I will tell you more as the day goes by. But right now, I am sitting in front of my computer, ready to promote with my fruit salad and the gifts that I collected from my trips. One liter of natural water to purify and do a maximal cleanse of my body, and my chamomile tea to calm me down when things get shaky.

Good morning Mi Gente, it’s your boy Dr. Kizomba.

#soberdays | #day52 | #Vermont3daystogo | #matumbo