Dance Better Now

Can you get good musicality advice from competitive dancers?

Think about the musicality advice that you typically get from your dance teacher. Is it about timing alone or does it expand to picking up in the character of the music and expressing that character?

Good musicality will go well beyond simply being in time. You do of course need to be in time. However, if you want to have really good musicality then you should:

• sense the emotion of the music and express it
• pre-empt the music and dance figures that suit it
• Play with the music (arrive a touch below maybe or dance between the beats depending upon the stye of dance)

However, you have likely never been told to do this nor how to do it. Nevertheless, It is well worth working on your musicality; it adds the final element to social dance that really brings it to life.If you want to know more about how you can work in this, then take a look at the relative section of part two of Dance Better Now.

However, a question remains: why is it so rarely taught?

It likely gets back to dancesport. In dancesport, the processes is to develop a routine and then dance that routine in time to whatever music is played as precicely as possible and with visual appeal. While a routine could be tuned to the music that plays, dancers drill the routine for precise movements. Thus, the dancer's muscle memory of the routine will likely override any musicality the dancer has.

This is not to say that all competitive dance kills musicality. Jack and Jill comp’s, which I think make probably the best contribution to social dance from the swing dance community, not only demand good musicality, but they even promote lyricism at times. For that, you really need to understand the song you are dancing too.

Nevertheless, the dance comp’s that many of us think or are like those in movies such as ‘Shall we Dance?’ These competitions focus more on execution of figures and timing as opposed to musical interpretation and expression on the fly. Thus, you might not get as much help in this area as you might like if your studio is influenced by this approach to dance.

If you do feel that you’re missing it and want a little more, then try going to some schools or dance events that are more focused on the social side of couples dancing. Keep your ears open for musicality workshops too. I have noticed these more at dance festivals.

Just something to think about

The Key to dancing better in 2014

Was dance a part of your New Year’s resolutions?

I know that some people are critical of them, but I think that they are good because they reveal what is important to us. However, there is one critique of New Year resolutions that I agree with. That’s the notion that too many resolutions are a problem.

Time and time again, I have read about:

•  how humans can’t keep a track of too many things at once
• how will power is limited, and is split when you have more tasks
• how any resolution needs a lot attention to see results
• how goals need to be specific

This can mean that if you want to get better at dance, then you might be taking on more than you realise. Is it movement that you want to be better; timing, musicality, leading and following; or a bit of everything? Pretty soon you can see that getting better at dance takes a bit of work.

There is one way to make this simple. You can of course say I will simply do as my teacher says and allocate 15 minutes each day to working on what my dance teacher tells me. This is an excellent approach. It’s simple to stick to and it will give you results. The only issue is making sure that you have a dance teacher who can see what limitations you have and can formulate practice tasks for you.

If you have such a teacher, then never let them go!

Many dance teachers can see what your limits are, but they might not be able to work out what you should do about it. Also, they might not be accustomed to setting homework. I am sure not too many of their students ask for it. Some I know just take up dancing to take a break from everything else.

This could mean that you will need to take on some responsibility.

You might need to find out what your weak at from your teacher and then work out what you can do about it. That might mean on the first day your 15 minutes is dedicated to finding exercises to improve something. The others will then be following those exercises. It might be the first two days if you can’t find exercises. Worst case scenario is that you need to work out your weaknesses and then find out what to do about it.

The less direction you get from your teacher, the less direction you have and the more initiative and will power you need.

If you do need to take a lot of initiative, then you will want to have dance alone as a New Year’s resolution. Because it will become a large task, you will not be able to afford the distraction of something else – like being nicer to the in-laws.

So before you set betting better at dance as a resolution this year, stop and think about how you can do this. If it’s possible to simply commit time to practice, then it’s a pretty easy task. Otherwise, break it down into smaller tasks and avoid distractions.