Dance practice is such an important part of our dance training. If you want your dance skills to progress more quickly, spend a bit of time on reviewing specific aspects of your dancing.
With our upcoming showcase one very good aspect to develop is expression. Expression in your dancing can take many forms. We talk about relating to your partner and in show dancing relating to an audience. We want our dancing and gestures to represent the style or feeling of the music. All of these aspects can be developed in your practice. The key is to pick one.
Say you are getting ready for the upcoming showcase, you have learned your choreography, now rather than running through your routine ad infinitum, try a specific focus.
First, you might consider your facial expressions, are you interacting with your partner or the audience with your eyes or are you staring off into space. Practicing your points of eye focus throughout the routine will improve your performance.
Second, you might try to focus on the body action, if it is a Waltz your swing and sway and your rise and fall will give a fuller expression of the music. If you are dancing a Latin dance, leg actions, hips and rib cage isolations will really create a Latin feel and expression in your dancing.
Another idea, and by now you are probably coming up with a few of your own, is to think about your arm styling or gestures. Your arms can relate a story in your dancing, they can fill the music and of course help you relate both to your partner and your audience, try running through your routine thinking of nothing but keeping your arms and back active.
The long and the short, and you might have heard this before, our practice is most effective when it is specific. If you are just practicing your dancing by running through a combination or routine your have learned over and over again, you will reap some benefit, but when you pick a particular focus and stick with it for a time, your progress will only increase.
Lawrence is a teacher at Dance Station. To schedule a lesson with Lawrence or any of our teacher call 505-989-9788.
