Serpentine Studies: Become your own teacher

Meta-learning

The heart and soul of SS is meta-learning: understanding what it means to learn something and in doing so hacking the process and saving lots of time and being able to teach yourself.

Science says it takes 10.000 hours or approximately 10 years to become a master at something but what this doesn’t take into account is that not all learning is equal. Whether a 10k is run in 70 minutes or 45 - depends on the runner and their training regime.

This format is named Serpentine Studies because it has studied tribal fusion from the inside out, took everything apart to have complete understanding of what each part is, to be able to put it back together in a highly structured way. Taking things apart helps us understand how something works and when each ‘separate’ component is understood and perfected individually, the whole ultimately functions at a higher level as well.

Serpentine Studies is not just the studies of dance, but also of learning itself and has used many scientifically proven ways to hack the learning and skill building process, such as chunking and deep practice. Serpentine Studies is the exact format I used to progress from complete beginner to pro in 2.5 years.

Smart Training

Meta-learning lays the foundation for smart training: by knowing what you’re doing you’re able to safe hundreds if not thousands of hours of practice by choosing only the most effective ways to train.

Serpentine Studies follows the sequence of mastery to ensure that every step of the dance journey is tailored to the highest level of efficiency and has a different style of training for every level based on scientific methods of skill building.

A 90% focus on drilling of small components of movements rather than combinations is what makes SS stand out from other formats and classes and is the ‘secret' behind faster skill building and the Serpentine look.

Body Mechanics

Another vital component of Serpentine studies is body awareness or rather: body mechanics. Serpentine Studies teaches that the body and soul are the true teachers, never another person. Deep feeling and listening and training your ability to pick up subtle cues from your inner being is what will ultimately teach you the most. Your body is continuously telling you how a movement works, what it’s supposed to feel like, how to stretch in a way that opens up the entire body, etc - but we live in a time where we think this information has to come from outside of us. Serpentine Studies is nothing more than the result of me being incredible curious and deeply feeling and listening to what’s going on inside the body when I move, and making adjustments based on what my body is telling me. If certain moves take a long time to ‘get’, you can bet that the real issue is not understanding the movement on a deep, intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) level. Body Mechanics are harder to learn than technique but the pay-off is worth it. SS endeavors to teach body mechanics through fascia work, deep practice, and cultivating inner receptivity through flow states.

Flow

Flow states are the seeming opposite of the meticulous breaking down of things and yet like all paradoxes; they go hand in hand like day and night, up and down. Where in L1 we take apart and zoom in, in L2 we integrate and zoom out to see the bigger picture. One without the other is like a bird with only one wing.

The ultimate aim of SS is entering flow states: states of slightly altered (heightened) consciousness where we are being danced. Like happiness, flow is not something you can chase or make happen, but you can consistently cultivate the conditions for flow to happen.

Flow states are a bridge between worlds; we embody and materialize a higher frequency right here and now. This is what makes this dance style so captivating, hypnotizing and mesmerizing, it’s something the mind can’t quite grasp but there’s a deep inner knowing that we’ve just witnessed something out of the ordinary. The dance then transcends beauty or even art, and becomes a transmission for healing, awakening, and remembering. A catalyst that impels us to find out the truth about who and what we are.