Meet Charlene Widzinski

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charlene Widzinski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Charlene, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I get my resilience from the constant decision to use my life challenges as fuel to rise above and move beyond them. In all honesty there were many truly difficult circumstances I had to endure growing up and at various points later on that were brutal and might have brought another to end their life or seek an easy solution or quick fix, but I chose to embrace the depth of each experience and persevere through the transformative process of inner healing that took place in dark moments of solitude, as isolating as it may have sometimes felt. I have experienced deep heartbreak and betrayal both personally and professionally and have had my reputation and career destroyed more than once by groups of people who spread and believed false rumors about me, which, after allowing myself to feel the full spectrum of emotions from those experiences, ultimately led me to the point I am at now of being more or less unfazed by what anyone thinks or says about me in any way (or anyone else for that matter) and just so much more deeply compassionate toward anyone who has gone through something similar, not to mention more unconditionally loving toward all. Those experiences also felt like a type of liberation that pushed me to begin expressing the fullness of my spirit and creativity as I perceive it from the inside without holding back, and ultimately I can’t help but feel a sense of immense gratitude for even these experiences that felt like nightmares in the moments when they were unfolding, because I completely recognize that they were necessary in order for me to grow into the fullness of who I really am in my most raw and unfiltered form and what I am here to create, to be redirected to a path that feels more closely connected to what I feel is my true purpose. In a way, the people who seemed to bring up the most pain are people I see as some of the most life-saving angels. I have always had an inner knowing that it is in the meeting of obstacles and pain head on and with an embracing spirit where true strength can be found; it is only when we allow ourselves to undergo the full intensity of every traumatic experience that it can be alchemized. This is similar to the process of how a diamond is formed, and I have always strived to become an embodiment of one.

In addition to undergoing genuinely difficult experiences and seeing them through until the situation was transformed, I also intentionally put myself into all kinds of challenging situations as often as I can, because that is truly the only way so many latent abilities can be activated! As an aerial and pole dance performer, I have been training year round for several years at Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, wearing only a bikini, when sometimes during the winter season it is in the low 50s with high winds and even rain (I got caught in downpours 3 different times this past year and decided to stay and train through it, which was a wildly electrifying experience, especially as I could see lightning striking while I was spinning and moving!). I find nature of any kind to be the ultimate environment for developing resilience on every level. In addition to training at the beach with the full presence of all the elements, I have also done photo and video shoots very high up above waterfalls, in some cases suspended from a highline, gone for hikes barefoot in extreme cold with snow (wearing next to nothing) and extreme heat using my breath to feel as though I was merging with those environments and there was no discomfort at all, and wandered off into the forest, desert, or mountains in the middle of nowhere where I encountered wild animals up close that I experienced as friends, starting with a grizzly bear in Canada when I was at Otter Lake at age 6, who approached to eat wild strawberries very near to the place in a berry patch where I was doing the same. I have always had a deep desire to transform any fear inside me into love by moving toward anything I felt in any way afraid of and feeling so thrilled and liberated every time I feel the fears melting away and my body, heart, mind, and spirit opening more deeply.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

As a professional aerial and pole dance performer, model, and musician, I truly treasure the creative current that flows within us all and stoke it like a fire that seems to fuel all of my life’s endeavors. I also do not limit the form that creative expression comes to me in, so I find myself constantly expanding into new roles, combining so many varied art forms to bring forth a message that comes to me from a truly deep place. Specifically I often find myself writing poetry, creating surreal photo and video art, creating fantastical costumes, etc. I didn’t go through my childhood years with training in any movement modalities, as much as I wanted to, because my parents wouldn’t allow me to (I know they did the best they could though and am grateful even for this experience!). They allowed me to pursue music, so as that was highly creative and engaging to my spirit, I dived in deeply and went very far with it, eventually touring around the world with various orchestras and prominent music artists as an oboist. My training in aerial & pole dance, as well as other movement modalities including ballet, bellydance, Indian fusion, hip hop dance, and modern dance, began after other pathways crumbled away. At that point it was a total wish come true in disguise, because it was exactly what I always wanted to do and finally had the time to pursue, but it was not at all easy to carve a whole new path for myself from nothing. I was so incredibly determined though, and I knew I would never give up no matter how rough it became or how long it took to get to the place I was envisioning internally. Alongside pursuing aerial arts and other dance forms, I began teaching myself a wide array of musical instruments, singing, and writing my own songs that I channeled into 3 different albums, the last of which I mixed and produced myself.

Moving to L.A. was a huge part of the journey of getting to where I am today, which is of course still always a work in progress! I was living in Austin, TX before I drove out here in late 2017 after literally a year of having dreams at night of seeing myself in the future living in L.A. happily pursuing my dreams, especially as an aerialist, when finally in my waking life an opening happened and I decided to take the risk and make the bold move to come here only knowing one person who lived here at the time. It only took a few days for essential connections to be made, and I have never been so moved by the dynamics of a city in the way that I’ve encountered so many people here who truly believe in living their dreams and in helping others to live theirs in all kinds of unconventional ways. It has truly been the City of Angels in my eyes, where so many angels have stepped in to offer a hand in unexpected moments. I can only hope to be a similar kind of angel to so many others around me.

At this point in my artistic career, my focus is mostly on aerial and pole dance performances and shoots, creative conceptual photo shoots, and bringing my musical journey and training full circle to produce a new album of my own songs with lyrics that are deeply personal as well as transpersonal, inspired by the mystical experiences of true love that have flowed through me, as well as the Earth itself. I have a vision to eventually combine this next musical album with aerial and pole dance in a full scale production as well as create a music video album where I dance to all the songs in an array of vast and varied landscapes in the wild.

To me, what is most exciting and special about my work is that it comes from my own very unique essence, expressed through an energy of sincere love, and it is conceived of while deeply tuning into the energies of this extraordinary planet we are living on and the mysterious and divine realms that lie beyond. The messages I channel through my work are meant to be a gift for anyone who receives it, even while the interpretation may be as multidimensional as the light reflected and multiplied through the many faces of a diamond.

I perform for various private & public events, parties, and productions around LA as well as for music videos. In addition to performing and creating, I also offer sessions in aerial & pole dance and general strength training & conditioning, and you can find me training and teaching at Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say the three qualities that have been most impactful on my journey have been resilience, maintaining a childlike mindset, and discipline. I feel I already dived in deeply to discuss the presence of resilience in my life in the first question, so I’ll go into the second two here.

Having started my entire life from scratch after progressing so far down another path, I can definitely say when I began my aerial and pole dance training at age 25 after already having had the experience of being a successful professional musician, I felt like a child again learning so many new skills from the ground up. While I do feel I have a lot of natural talent and inclination for dance, it was fundamental for me to uphold a level of childlike curiosity as I developed these new skills and also to enjoy every moment, even when in some cases I felt so behind to the place I saw myself eventually getting to as a movement artist. I feel that play is so important to growth as well as creativity, and that is why children tend to learn so quickly and are so full of ideas. However, I truly believe that anyone at any age can change their life and become masterful at something completely new to them, as long as they allow this mindset to be at the forefront of this process, and my life is definitely an example of this!

Paired with this mindset, discipline is equally important in my eyes. Anyone can do anything as long as they do it! I truly believe that the key to mastery is doing whatever it is over and over and over again, and the spirit of that skill will begin to reveal itself through the person. I am immensely grateful for my musical training as a foundation where a sense of discipline was already so deeply established in me. I have always worked extremely diligently and consistently at everything I’ve ever done, so it immediately carried over to all my aerial and overall movement training. Also, the internal music library I collected in my psyche from being so dedicated to learning music became an incredible point of inspiration when choosing the music I dance to; it makes me feel like I have such a wide range of color palettes from which I can choose in order to express what is truly in my heart.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I get overwhelmed at any point in any way, I immediately take a step back from whatever I’m doing and take some kind of action to completely reset myself. I feel that overwhelm is a signal that some energy in the body needs to be moved, so my first inclination is usually to go to the gym, train aerial or pole, go for a hike in nature, or even just put on music and let my body move however it feels guided through dance and deep breathing. Sometimes a lot can come at us at once, and even scientists are now saying that time is speeding up, so I feel we all need this intensity of movement at certain points in order to simply digest all these sources of energy and information that we are receiving from the outside world. I can honestly say that after an intense workout or dance / aerial session, I feel a sense of powerful emptiness, like a cup that is again ready to be poured into by each new endeavor I then feel so present to take on. When nature is thrown into the mix as well, I can’t help but feel reborn afterwards, as though all my senses have been sharpened and I am seeing and hearing for the first time with a heart that is smiling in every direction. I also travel as often as possible to freshen my perspective and open myself to new sources of inspiration.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlene.widzinski

Image Credits

John Vogt
Scott Bixler
Paul Calderon
Sol Spitz
Paulino Photography