On this Season of Dancing With the Stars Bindi Irwin has pulled off some remarkable performances and got the scores (and final victory) to prove it. Many of us would not expect this from the daughter of a crocodile hunter. Her dance partner Derek Hough, noted that at the start she could not dance “No joke, she could not dance,”.
She has surprised many with how well she dances.
She has something that helps her dance so well. This makes her an ideal person to study to understand how we can all become better dancers. If we can work out what helps her dance so well, then we can emulate this.
Physicality
Bindi’s posture did improve over the season. However, that was more a result of mindfulness. Derek noted that she became aware of her body as she practiced more. Once she was aware of this, she could produce the right posture. If you watch her dance, then you can also see how strong and clear her movements are. Bindi has had an active life, which has given her a physicality that is ideal for dance.
The lesson: if you find that your body does not have the ability to move as you wish, then you probably need to engage in dedicated exercises to build the strength that is needed for dance. Take a look here to learn some of these.
Musicality
Whenever I watch Bindi dance, I can tell that she has a sense of timing. When she did tango to Shook Me All Night Long by AC-DC Bindi spoke about how music reminds her of her past. Because music plays such a role in her life, Bindi has a deeper connection to it, and thus a sense of timing and expression. This lets her then focus on learning routines and movement without needing to put extra effort into paying attention to the music - she feels it naturally, and will be in sync when she dances.
The lesson: focus on music separately. Listen to it and connect with it. If you want to learn methods to pick up timing faster, then take a look here.
Learning
Because of her age, Bindi would still be accustomed to learning from others. Many children learn well because they think they have too. When you feel compelled and have no alternative, then you learn fast. Kids don’t actually have that much of an advantage when it comes to learning – they just have no alternative. Bindi’s mother commented how much she has grown over the season and how Derek had a lot to do with this – Bindi was able to learn a lot more than just dance. Bindi is accustomed to learning from others, and lets that happen. Thus she can learn dance fast.
The lesson: We need to learn to learn. We also need to simply put the time in to learn. This can mean study in your own time. I can mean really paying attention to your teacher. It also means that you should manage the way you learn – learning dance is different from learning other things, and you might need to adjust your learning style. If you want to know how to tune your learning strategy to become a better dancer, then take a look here.
Attitude
The Halloween dance showed how much Bindi can get into her dancing. When you want to perform, you are indeed performing; it is a lot like acting. Bindi has experience acting and she also seems to like doing everything she does well.
The lesson: if you want to succeed as a performance dancer, then you need to realise that you are acting too. Work on your body language and attitude to match the dance. If you want to learn some tricks to being able to express and act in dance, then take a look here.
Summary
Bindi dances well and learned to dance well fast because she had the attributes that make a good dancer: musicality, physicality, nd ability to learn and attitude. These can be developed outside of dance so that you too can learn dance fast. Learn more about developing attributes to dance better faster here.
