Meet Shimmy

We recently connected with Shimmy and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shimmy, 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?

Experience. I believe resilience is not something that is built overnight, rather, something that is grown over a period of time. I like to compare it to working out: you may not have the dream body overnight, however, if you’re consistent, it is almost a guarantee that you will reach your goal.

As an artist and person, there will be external and internal roadblocks. External meaning outside of yourself like people, unfortunate circumstances, and other distractions. Internal would be things that are in your control but still hold you back, like a negative mindset. I believe resilience is built through overcoming both of those external and internal roadblocks. You may feel sad, sorrow, and frustration, but you still need to prepare for that gig!

That does not mean that you need to push yourself to your breaking point. Intentionality is important. Intentional rest, intentional self-care, intentional fun! Going through life’s challenges and learning how to handle them is how I am building my resiliency.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a movement artist. As I have grown older, I realize that I am most comfortable being able to have choice in how I express myself. I started my artist career as a professional performer of Raqs Sharqi (indigenous term for “belly dance”). Now I do that and I am a burlesque performer! My goal is to experience different types of movement art outside of stage/audience performances, like visuals, gogo dancing, and modeling. I find excitement in getting out of my comfort zone. I’m focused on elevating my current skillset while accepting more opportunities to connect with others and taking on more responsibilities for the community.

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?

For me, it was endurance, faith, and consistency. I believe if you want to become better at your craft, you must put yourself in areas where there are others who are more experienced than you. For example, for a lot of dancers, that is taking open level dance classes or workshops. More than likely you will be surrounded by people who are at different stages of their dance journey. The choreography you learn may be challenging or hard to remember, or your first steps in the dance may be shaky. The imposter syndrome may kick in and you may start to feel uncomfortable to the point that you may question why you are doing this in the first place. Contrary to what you may feel in the moment, this is a good thing. It means you are initiating growth. What happens next is crucial: you either quit because it is too uncomfortable or you keep going because you want to get better. I advise that the reader chooses the latter. The endurance to process through those uncomfortable feelings is key to becoming a better dancer. Before the next class, you rely on faith that you will get better, the choreography will feel easier, you will feel more confident. The truth is, if you are consistent, you will! Consistently going to class, using YouTube University, and/or creating a habit of practicing will result in becoming a better dancer.

Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it. Keep going. I believe in you, so you should believe in you too.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

It’s good to invest time in sharpening the skills you are already proficient in. I also believe that investing energy into improving areas that we struggle in will ultimately result in the improvement of the strengths.

For example, I’m pretty shy and feel very awkward talking, especially in front of large groups of new people. Before I first started teaching, I was even more shy and awkward. The first class I taught, and several classes after, was incredibly uncomfortable for me. It was probably uncomfortable for the students too as they probably could see my discomfort and lack of experience! However, the more I taught, the less uncomfortable I felt. The result was I became a better communicator and a better dancer.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: IG: theshimmychanga
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shimmychanga919

Image Credits

3trnl

GialloShots

Bonnie Stanley Photography

Spirit Nyx Photography

Marco Roldan