Dance Better Now

Is this the right way to become an excellent dancer?

Let’s consider one of the most common approaches taken on the path to the mastery of partner dancing. It goes like this:

1. Find a dance school with a good reputation – you can judge this by the awards they have, the number of studios, the number of students, the size or their events and membership of a national dance regulatory board.
2. Make an appointment for a trial lesson with a person who will potentially be you instructor.
3. If the trial seems to go well, then sign up for regular lesson – probably twice a week.
4. Work towards your first level (or medal) grading by learning routines of each style in one groups of dances
5. Then satisfy the first level in any other groups of styles you are interested in (street Latin, American Latin, Modern, American Smooth, American Rhythm and so on).
   1. Once you complete level 1 in your selected style grouping, you can say that you can dance
   2. Then on to the next level.
      1. The second level will make you a polished dancer.
      2. Then the next level.
         1. You will then be an advanced dancer.

Does this indeed make you an advanced dancer?

There are two defining features of the above approach:

1. A focus on routine
2. A social interpretation of standard figures

A focus on routine is ideal for learning figures, but not social dancing. A social interpretation is enough for social dancing, but it provides bad habits for dance sport. Thus, because of the routines you will not be well equipped for social dancing, but because of the social interpretation you will not be prepared for dance sport either. It’s like the worst of both worlds. You might have a good teacher who will encourage proper social dancing or focus more on technique than is needed. However, this will slow progress, which can frustrate you.

So what do you do?

If you like simply learning more and more challenging routines and being recognised for that, then this approach is fine.

If you eventually want to get into dance sport, then consider making the move early. You can then focus on technique.

On the other hand, if you wish to become a social dancer, then you can push your instructor to teach differently. This works well for follows – you can have your instructor not teach the routine, but just do the routine with you and show you how to follow. They can even do something different from the routine during training and then do the routine when you are graded. You get to reach a new level and learn to follow.

For leads, you just need to accept that learning a routine as well as how to lead will take more time than learning one or the other. You will need to enhance the learning process if you want to learn both at the same time.

What if you like learning at a social studio, you want to attain higher levels, learn to dance socially and dance with the proper standard (dance sport standard)?

You will need to do the following:

• Attend a school that does gradings and has a dance sport connection (This might be your school now, you might need to change schools or you might need to split your time).
• Manage your teacher to teach you the way you need to be taught so you can also to dance socially.
• Manage your own learning so that you can accelerate the rate you can learn all the dance skills you wish to learn.

The first one is fairly easy – just find another school if needed. You might even charge your teacher with learning about this higher standard. That brings you to the second point – managing your teacher.

If you can manage your teacher and yourself, then you can learn all you want. To know how to do this – click here.

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

How do you know when you’re a good social dancer?

I assume that you’re reading this post and all my other blog posts because you want to know how to be a better dancer. This does of course raise a question: how do you know if you’re a good dancer?

It’s an important question. If you do not know what you’re trying to achieve, then how will you know if you’re there? How will you even know if you’re working towards it?

With these questions in mind I thought it is worth talking about how you can tell if you’re a good dancer.

The obvious way to tell is through gradings and competitions. If you have worked your way up a number of levels or won a lot of competitions, then you would think that that makes you a good dancer.  At least it makes you good at dancing in certain situations: when there is a set routine to follow, when you’re dancing with someone you know or under pressure. For you this might be enough. And if it is, then you know exactly what you’re aiming for: more levels  and first places under your belt. The good thing about this approach is that you know full well when you’ve achieved your goal or how much further there is to go.

Is this the only way to tell if you’re a good social dancer? What if you’re not interested in competitions or gradings?

I have mentioned Tim Ferris a few times before because he sets an excellent example of how you can manage your time, and do what you want. He actually dances Tango and quickly progressed from beginner to winning some serious competitions. You can read more about it in his famous book – The Four Hour Work Week.

 

              

I have found his writing very interesting, but some people hate his attitude toward dance. Basically, Tim does focus on the competition side of things. People like Mari Johnson, another blogger on dance (specifically Tango), are quite hostile toward Tim’s positions. You can read the blog here, but Mari basically argues that Tango is not something to simply master. There is another element to it that is more like an experience that is essential to proper Tango. I think you can say the same of all social dancing.

But what is it?

I have always been suspicious of competitions too as an absolute measure, but love them for the focus they give me. I would be so lazy without them. This has made me pay attention to other measures. I came across one at a special dance class I went to once. This night they had a guest teacher in. This teacher ran a brilliant class. He went through some great moves and matched them to some really well chosen music. I was so impressed that I looked him up on the school’s website. On his profile it said that he was known as ‘The best man in Melbourne (the city in which he lived) to dance with.’ That sentence left a real impression, and I cnan still remember the feeling that I had when I read it. It was the obvious key element of knowing you’re a good social dancer – what the other person experiences when dancing with you.

The only issue with that is that people are always polite. Well not always, but often. This means you can’t rely on them so you need something else that you can trust and that you can use to determine if you are indeed a good dancer.

After talking to a few other dancers I think the key is looking for a balance between three things: you, your partner and the music. When you and your partner are in sync with each other and the music, you get a certain feeling. It is a really positive feeling too. It is similar to surfing, where you feel that your body as extended to include the board and the wave. If you have surfed before, then you know what I mean. If not, then it is like your physical self-awareness increases – you can feel not just your body, but that of your partner and the music.

I have never had this experience without the person I am dancing with also having it. So I would argue that the more frequently you experience this feeling, the better the dancer you are.

Obviously, you might not get it if you’re partner is not at that level yet. It is partner dancing after all. That’s why I say it’s related to the frequency of the experience. So if you’re looking for a way to measure how good a dancer you are, then think about how often you have that feeling of unification between you, your partner and the music.

Practice and dance – how to best practice

Just last week I was dancing in a competition within my studio. Nothing major, but it is a good break from usual classes focused on medals because you get to work on a routine. I didn’t win, and I could have been happier with how I danced, but it was all fun. Also, it reiterated two key lessons about the nature of practice and how you can apply them to dance.

Leading up to the night, I started to realise that I was not as along with my development as I would have liked. This motivated me to take a lot more action than I had been. I started going to the university where I work and using some of the large rooms for practice. Because it was Waltz I really needed a chance to stretch my legs out. And that’s what the big room was for.

During this focused practice I noticed a lot of smaller things that I needed to work on and was able to do so. I am now of course wondering how much better I would have danced if I had started putting this much effort in earlier. And that’s the lesson that was really reiterated to me. If you want to improve, then you need to put some time in. Quality time of course and you should always work smarter than harder, but time is still needed. My teacher actually told me that there were some extra things she wanted to work on, but felt that we ran out of time, and left them for fear the extra information at a late stage would cause problems on the night. So it was pretty clear to me that I needed to put more effort in.

There are two ways to ensure that the effort goes in. One is to work on routine. A fellow dance student has an alarm in his phone to go off each day at a set time. That is to tell him that it is time to practice for an hour. You can imagine how an hour’s practice a day would improve your dance ability. Now it need not be 1 hour. Maybe only 10-15 minutes, but doing a bit each day will make a lot of difference if you do not. Another way is to have goals. Ever heard of the saying ‘things take as long as they take’? If things are more urgent, then you naturally work harder at them. That’s what happened with me. The issue is that it was too late. I spoke with my teacher, and the plan is to set dates for stages of each stage of development: one for learning a routine and then one for mastering it and then the date of performance. You might feel you need to have some dates to keep you focused on improving your dance. I know some people who just go day in and day out with no real improvement because they set no date for a goal and do not dance often enough. Make sure you’re the opposite of that.

This was actually my second go at this type of a competition (it a fairly major one at my studio) and this time felt much better than last time. This is the other lesson. You can practice to get better at stress so that it is not a big deal. The major issue with confidence in dance is novelty. When things are new we are easily distracted, and we choke. It is also the case when the stakes seem higher; we focus on those instead of dancing. As we become more familiar with them they distract us less. I was actually talking with the guy who won my division.  He is in dance sport as well and spends about 10-20 hours a week practicing. He actually felt that the comp we were in was more daunting because each person (couple was the student and their teacher) danced alone. In dance sport everyone dances together. He felt this made the experience more intense. Also he felt that in dance sport one simply danced for oneself, but in this comp he was dancing to entertain as well and that was more distraction. It is easy to imagine how an expert performer/entertainer dancer would feel stressed in dance sport thinking about the judges allocating numbers to their dance ability. The issue is not which is harder. The issue is that what’s different is hard. So no matter what might stress you in dance and cause issues of confidence, know that practice will conquer it. It is easy to forget this when dealing with the stress and fear so it’s good to be reminded of it.

Should dance-sport be in the Olympics?

Because the Olympics is on at the moment, I have been reminded of when I heard someone tell me that there is a desire to make dance-sport an Olympics event. I have my own thoughts about whether or not dance should be in the Olympics. However, I think discussion the question helps us to better understand the nature of partner dancing. Not only that, but I recently received an email from a subscriber of my email list asking for advice on how to prepare for competition after spending time social dancing. So a comparison between dance-sport and social dancing can be informative for people in the same situation.

The Olympics

While the ancient Olympics games did eventually include artistic competitions, it did originally consist of athletic events that were easy to judge objectively. Not only that, but it was the introduction of more subjective events such as poetry recitals that led to the corruption of the games, which were initially meant to display what the body was capable of. Therefore, while there is no reason why subjectively assessed competitions could be a part of the Olympics, I personally feel that they are less suited than events like the athletics ones.

The nature of dance

Dance is definitely a physical activity and displays what the body is capable of. However, it has many social aspects to it as well. I personally think it is hard to have one without the other. I recall a comment by Mari Johnson in her blog on Tim Ferris and his winning of a tango record. You can see the blog here. Basically, her argument is that Tango (and dance in partner dance in general) is not about simple mastery, but the experience of dancing with another. I am very sympathetic to this, but I realise that we all like to compete; partner dance competitions have been going on for more than 100 years.

Dance for competition

I feel that partner dancing should not be an Olympic event, but at the very least we need to realise that people have turned it into something that is a competition. This is a little different, and being good at dance sport is a bit different from being a good social dancer. Being aware of these differences will help you focus your efforts at improvement, and let you get more of what you want from dance.

Remember the following:

• You still need to basics – even though competition is more about the way you look and you can practice for this, you will find that good musicality and awareness for better connection with you partner will make this easier to achieve.
• Focus more on physicality – Competitions will be very much about how you look. This really requires good physicality. You will want to increase your efforts in this area when compared to other areas that you will work on.
• Confidence if needed – dancing with another person (who might be a stranger) might be more confronting than dancing in front of others with a person you know. However, this might be the opposite for you. If you need to, then look at applying confidence building techniques to improve your ability to dance in competitions.
• Realise that you’re dancing for a different reason – I recall a blues dance teacher I once learnt from being described as “the best man in Melbourne to dance with”. He gained this reputation by focusing on the nature of dance in its entirety. You will not be doing this when focusing on competition, just be aware of this difference.