Hello beautiful,

Happy Chinese New Year! We celebrated the New Moon in Aquarius and my Mom's Birthday (remotely with a call, in-person later this spring!) this week.

Keeping it short and sweet this Friday, as the end of January brings so many deadlines and special events with it. Wow, we are one month in to 2025 and these last 5 weeks have been packed.

You may choose to continue/recommit to your intentions, or start fresh now!

This week I published a short video tutorial on how to tie your ribbons, helpful for ballet students and anyone curious about how it is really done (hint: not wrapped-up-your-calf like you might see in fashion or on social media):

​View the How to Tie your Ballet Slipper & Pointe Shoe Ribbons video on YouTube here​

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My other creations, recommendations, and questions for you are:

Viewing:

• "Coppelia" is the ballet story I'm teaching at the moment, and this is a cute short excerpt
• "Hacks" is a Comedy-Drama series we just started watching, enjoyable so far
• ​@alokvmenon has a valuable perspective on authenticity, humanity, and love
• ​Creating a Self-Care Toolkit with the Wild Cherry Farm
• Our friend Arthur's Art Opening:

Listening:

• Particularly loved dancing to "Merry-Go-Round of Life (from 'Howl's Moving Castle')" this week

Reading:

• ​The Wishing Game by Meg Schaffer is my current fiction read
• An article about an awesome-sounding new dance work, "Beige" Afro-Ballet by my colleague and friend Jonathan Clark Sypert
• ​What do we do now? blog article by Katy Pyle, Ballez creator, NCSA classmate and friend

Practicing:

• ​Guided Meditation to Reset and Let Go
• ​How to Become Enchanted by Life from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits
• Struggling with weeknight dinners, for which there is good and bad news in You'll Never Get Off the Dinner Treadmill from the Atlantic
• ​27 Freezable Soups might help me during the winter months
• Tofu Veggie Coconut Curry, which I can then turn into fried rice the following day kind of like this Easy Fried Rice Recipe from Downshiftology is one of my go-tos
• ​5-minute minimalism with Courtney Carver of Be More With Less
• ​Scary Hour productivity hack from TikTok (via Real Simple)

Practicing Together LIVE / Adult Movement Classes this week:

• In-Studio Adult Beginner Ballet, 6-7:00pm CET Mondays, Tanzschule Tanzraum Nippes, Cologne, Germany creates a strong, body-friendly, and graceful foundation for dance (German)
• Online Yogalicious Gentle Yoga. 7-8:00pm CET Tuesdays (8-9:00am HI) provides a delicious mindful movement feast which balances strength, balance and coordination for mind, body, and spirit adaptable to all levels and conditions (English)
• Online Balletlicious Gentle Adaptive Ballet Barre+, 7:30-8:30am CET Wednesdays, consists of mostly barre with a little dancey centre work, building a strong, body-friendly, and graceful foundation for dance at home or anywhere in the world (English)

Inquiring:

• What movement, media, and music are you looking forward to in February?
• What is your favorite dancing footwear?
• Which unanswered questions do you have about ballet and dance gear and training?
• What strategies of simplicity or self-care would you like to employ?

Gladly share your response to the questions above or provide other updates by replying to this email or on social media if you are active there.

Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact. Take care of yourself and keep moving mindfully!

Love, Blythe

Blythe Stephens, MFA, Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach: dance through your difficulties
and take leaps of faith into a joyful, fulfilling life

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