In My Blood By Shawn Mendes

20 Self-Love Songs (for dancers) – #movetolove2019

February is supposed to be about love, but the most important kind of love for girls ages 8 – 17 is not romantic. We believe girls need more self-love. And we believe a key ingredient of self-love (& happiness) is doing what you love. The world needs strong & inspired girls doing more of what they love!

It’s day 7 of our #movetolove2019 series, where we’re spotlighting Friday Night Show performances from our dance camps. We’ve chosen 20 self-love songs with lyrics that echo our dance camp mission: to empower girls to move to love.

What exactly do we mean by “move to love”?

MOVE – to pass from one place or position to another.

LOVE – to access the part of our mind that is connected to Spirit; the source of peace, joy, happiness and a whole bunch of other “positive” emotions.

So move to love means to move to a new place (or state of mind) – the state of mind connected to your Spirit (peace, joy, happiness…all that positive stuff). Please share your inspirational dance videos on Instagram this month! #movetolove2019 @danceadtc

Song #7: “In My Blood” By Shawn Mendes

Originally performed at our NC Dance Camp

“I’m looking through my phone again, feeling anxious. Afraid to be alone again, I hate this. I’m trying to find a way to chill, can’t breathe, oh – is there somebody who could help me? It’s like the walls are caving in. Sometimes I feel like giving up. No medicine is strong enough. Someone help me, I’m crawling in my skin. Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I just can’t.

It isn’t in my blood.”

The Self-Love Lesson from “In My Blood” by Shawn Mendes

This is a beautiful Dance Idol performance by one of our campers in North Carolina. While the song may feel dark and make us uncomfortable, we can all relate to the line, “I’m looking through my phone again, feeling anxious. Afraid to be alone again, I hate this.” Walls feel like they’re “caving in” when Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and bad TV collaborate in a hostile takeover of our personal space. Relief can only be found when we unplug so we can check in with ourselves.

But we want to avoid the “winters” of our lives (for more about this, see our Seasons of Love post). We try to distract ourselves from being alone and being uncomfortable. We believe that intuitively everyone understands that too much time spent glued to our phone or computer is not good for us. Most frightening is that researchers are only just beginning to study the long-term impact of all this “screen time.”

So, we believe that girls (well actually, all people) need a cell phone detox. Dance camp is a great excuse to unplug and go outside, jump in a lake or just sit around with new friends. Sound boring? We think boredom fuels creativity. It is what leads us to sing into hairbrushes at the top of our lungs with new friends and use every color in the rainbow pack of markers to write letters home. Instead of crawling in our skin feeling like the walls are caving in, we’re more in tune with ourselves and each other… read more about our cell phone detox policy!

More About Our Dance Camp Mission

American Dance Training Camps is a company inspired by and created for strong girls. Doing what we love enables us to embody, model & teach our sixteen character values, or “movement manifesto.”

The ADTC Movement Manifesto is one way we promote our values within our dance camp community. It is an ever-evolving collection of bold thoughts that allow for some real conversations to take place at camp and throughout the year.

Learn more about ADTC’s mission & manifesto here!