How do i look dance
How to look good dancing, in just one lesson | Dance
I'm in a high-ceilinged studio space with whitewashed floors and bright lighting. This place doesn't look much like a nightclub and there's no party atmosphere, but I have come to dance, or at least to take part in an Introduction to Dance class: I want to find out if there is any hope for me.
Actually, I don't think I'm a terrible dancer. There was a time in my 20s when I would go clubbing without fail every week and it didn't take much to lure me on to the dancefloor. Dancing gave me the opportunity to totally lose myself; for someone like me who doesn't drink or do drugs it wasn't just intensely pleasurable – it also felt necessary. Today I am a middle-aged, married, mortgaged, fortysomething father. My opportunities for dancing have diminished, as has my confidence.
Tania, our instructor, takes us through our first moves. I hadn't realised until now how much of my dancing style was arm-based – random pointing played a crucial role in my technique. I also realise how little I was moving my legs and especially my upper body. It's almost as if I wasn't allowing myself to respond instinctively to the music and the beat.
Tania stresses the importance of relaxing the chest. She shows us how to crumple and twist our middle section by breaking it into different areas – the upper chest, stomach and hips – and trying to move one part without affecting the others. I am even asked to do something called a ripple. It's the sort of move I imagine pole dancers learn during their training, and indeed when done well it looks as if your body is undulating in musical ecstasy. It doesn't quite look like that when I do it.
Having to isolate different moves and focus on the chest, then shoulders and neck, makes me appreciate that my style of dancing is stiff rather than fluid – more Ian Curtis than Curtis Mayfield – and the way to improve that is to focus on the core rather than the limbs.
Tania's promise, or warning, that the class would be funky, meant the anodyne hip hop music we were dancing to wasn't anything I would usually subject myself to and the moves that suited the music- sudden drops with legs apart, tapping the inside and outside of one's shoes as you shake your lower leg- weren't things I could imagine doing while listening to Joy Division: good dancing demands good music.
I stare at myself in the huge mirrors, dancing to hip hop music – suddenly dropping down with legs apart or shaking my lower legs – and at first I feel self-conscious. It's hard not to enviously glance at the others as they morph into Michael Jackson and Beyoncé.
By the end of the class I am totally exhausted and just a little bit exhilarated. The most important lesson I have learned isn't any particular dance move, although that helps, but just that it is so freeing to have an outlet to dance where for an hour and a half I am not thinking about work or family or Twitter: just about how good it is to move your body to the music.
That weekend, in the safety of my living room I put on some music – Pulp's Disco 2000 – and have a dance with my wife, Bridget, and our two-year-old daughter, Laila. As I dance, I notice how much more aware I am of my body. Dancing well is about good music and good moves but it is also about realising that no one is ever too old to dance, and that the dancefloor needn't have a glitter ball – it can even have a dining table.
In one way it is rather ridiculous, the three of us dancing amid the toys and books, and yet in another it is perfect."Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown," sings Jarvis Cocker, and Bridget and I sing along with him. I don't wave my arms quite so much, my chest feels looser, my confidence is back, and no one is laughing at me.
Sarfraz took an Absolute Beginners class with City Academy, London
What I learned Sarfraz's top tips
1 Be confident Remind yourself you're never too old to dance.
2 Avoid the sudden drop with legs apart You're not Miley Cyrus. Also worth avoiding any move that may bring to mind the zombies in the Thriller video.
3 It's OK to close your eyes It's almost certainly not cool but it feels good to me.
4. Choose music that suits your mood Saying that, I would counsel sitting out the Village People's YMCA.
5. Don't worry about where you dance Otherwise you'll never do it – the kitchen will do.
Take it further
At a class
Frame has to be London's most fun dance studio. It hosts Classic Music Videos classes so you can channel your inner Jacko, Madonna or TLC.
On a course
Is it a while since your dancing heyday? The Northern Ballet's Keep Dancing course is for those aged over 55 who have never danced, or are a bit out of practice.Enrol for the whole course or drop in.
At a festival
The Glasto Latino tent is back. Take lessons by day to live music from one of Cuba's best "son" bands (fusion of Spanish and African music), then flaunt your new moves at night.
27-29 June.
How To Not Look AWKWARD When You Dance
Do you feel awkward when you dance??
It’s pretty normal to feel insecure about your dancing.
I mean, it’s your body. Your literal SELF that's being put out there!If you’re that person at the club swaying awkwardly or hanging out by the wall at a school dance…
We’re here to help make you feel more comfortable in your body..gif)
Ready to stop being a wallflower?? Wanna get movin’ and groovin’??!?!
Let’s go!
1. Own your style
If you feel awkward when you dance, then you will look awkward when you dance. And if you keep telling yourself you're awkward, then you will stay awkward.
The first step to overcoming awkwardness is to stop that self-deprecating narrative.
You don’t have two left feet.
You do have rhythm.
You can be a good dancer.
Re-defining your view of yourself is the only way you allow yourself to grow.
And if you're truly convinced that you can't follow a beat or stop tripping over yourself... just take some time to practice those basic foundations!
STEEZY's online "Intro to Dance" program walks you through all of the fundamentals step-by-step, so it's the perfect place to start.
Click here to start the program for free!
2. Find your body’s natural groove
No two people in the world have the exact same bodies, music tastes, dance training, or life experiences. This means that no two people really dance the same.
Everyone dances like themselves. You, included! So find that groove that feels right to you.
When you take class, modify the choreography to fit your body. And when you freestyle, just start with a basic two-step.
That simple left-right, right-left skeleton leaves SO much room for you to build off of.
Feel the way your body reacts to the music...
Let yourself groove out...
3. And COMMIT to it
A lot of the time, dancers will look awkward because they PLAY THEMSELVES!!
That slight hesitation, that SMIDGEN of under-delivery, that look of “oh sh*t” on their faces…
Awkward.
Knowing and committing to yourself is the only way you won’t look awkward when you dance.
4. Loosen up!
Really, an instant fix. Most people look awkward when they dance because they are stiff. And they’re stiff because they aren’t moving.
Don’t lock your knees.
Free your neck to let your head bob.
Shake out your arms.
Relax your core.
You can even do some stretching or pilates to help your muscles get used to that relaxed, loose state!
This pilates class on STEEZY is perfect as it's literally designed to loosen the muscles you use when you dance.
So get LOOSE. No excuses.
5. LISTEN to the music
Maybe you look awkward when you dance because your body isn’t matching the tempo of the music.
Simply aligning the rhythm of your movements to the beat will make your dancing look a lot more put together.
Or, your vibe isn't matching the vibe of the song, making your dancing look off.
Follow Melvin Timtim's advice on this:
6. Have fun
I’ve never watched someone genuinely love what they’re doing and judged them.
Pure fun never looks or feels awkward.
So stop overthinking! Put on a soundtrack to a musical you love and lip sync it all the way through. Blast some dirty rap music in your car and go awff.
Play some sexy bedroom music and serenade your lover. At the end of the day, dance is something that lets you play.
You can be anyone you want, do anything you want, and escape from whatever stresses are plaguing your mind.
Dance is an escape, not another stressor.
So have fun with it :) and looking dope will happen on its own.
Being a good dancer or a bad dancer, a dope one or an awkward one...
It depends on what you practice – both mentally and physically. Use these tips to make dancing look and feel like second nature.
You’ll be tearin’ it up on the dance floor in no time.
What are some things that helped you overcome looking awkward when you dance? Comment below and leave a tip!
Classes on STEEZY Studio help you loosen up to move more comfortably.
Take our beginner program to learn the essential grooves to start with!
What I look like when I dance naked in front of a mirror
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How to love yourself in dance: zoukability — LiveJournal
Author: Murasheva Nadezhda Not so long ago I conducted a survey of readers.
One of the questions was what would you like to read about. And one girl suggested a topic: How to love yourself in dance? And it really resonated with me.
This topic is very relevant and difficult, it often comes up in conversations and during classes with children. And for myself, I also know very well what it is and how difficult it is to change something in yourself. And today the article is not about technology, but rather just personal thoughts. nine0003
How many dancers know this feeling that you are dancing somehow, to put it mildly, not very well? That you are lagging behind the group, that something is clearly lacking in your dance? I know the situation when you come to a party, and you are rarely invited, and you stand and think: "Well, why? What's wrong with me? Am I the worst dancer? What repels them in me?" . Or, right during the dance, you look at the stone face opposite and think that the person is not at all interested, does not like to dance with you, since he has such a face.
Or directly in the dance you mark all your mistakes, scold yourself for them, and the mood disappears somewhere. Or it happens that you watch yourself in a video, see a crooked log and think: "Well, why is everything so bad? Where is the teacher and where am I..."
Have you met the described situations in one way or another? Believe me, they are close to a lot more dancers than you think. They are especially close to children of beginner and intermediate level, who are not yet confident in themselves and have complexes about their technique and plasticity.
It happened to me too. At first, I was upset when I was not invited enough, and for a long time I tried to find the reason in myself. Then I went to ballet. Tortured at the machine, I looked at the teacher, at advanced students and at myself. It was very hard. The leg does not rise, there is no eversion at all, the arms are like an excavator. You plow, plow month after month, year, second, and it seems that everything is useless, nothing changes, everything is still crooked and terrible.
And you think: "Is it worth it to suffer like this? Nothing works out right anyway."
Over time it passed. But while a rethinking came, a new attitude towards myself and my dance, I had to suffer pretty much and suffer from the fact that everything is crooked for me.
So what if you don't love yourself in dancing? If you constantly scold yourself for mistakes, are unhappy with yourself, if it seems to you that others do not like to dance with you?
First, realize that the partners you dance with may also be dissatisfied with themselves even more than you .
Of course they won't admit it to you personally. But I heard a lot of talk, they say, I don’t want to go to a party, because I’m still too bad, crooked, weak, everyone is suffering with me and looking at me like r@#$%. This is true for both girls and boys. Therefore, when you are dancing with another person, and he is self-absorbed, gloomy and puzzled, there is a high probability that this state of his is not caused by you and your dance at all, but by him.
Perhaps at this moment he himself is more complex about his dance even more than you. nine0003
Many of us have suffered childhood traumas, and we automatically regard various phenomena as rejection by others. But usually this is not so, all this exists only in our head, and inside we continue to experience our childhood grievances. In fact, most likely, your partner does not feel any negativity towards you, he is just very in himself, turned off from the present moment, or very shy, or he sees your displeased face and regards it as dissatisfaction with himself in the same way. A simple smile sometimes helps a lot in these situations. nine0003
Secondly, understand yourself.
Dance is a projection of our inner world, our psyche, our behavior. Everything good and bad that we have will somehow manifest itself in the dance. It helps a lot to analyze yourself and see other people. If something annoys, upsets, worries you in dance, try to extrapolate this phenomenon and see how it manifests itself in your life globally.
If you are not confident in yourself in dancing, if you feel somehow wrong and worse than others, then you are not confident in yourself in principle. Yes, in some other areas this uncertainty may not be noticeable to you, somewhere you even flaunt and admire yourself (which, as you know, is the opposite of the same problem), but as soon as you find yourself in unusual conditions, it is bright opens up. It may turn out that the problem is more global: you do not love yourself as a whole, do not accept yourself. And non-acceptance of oneself in dance is only a particular phenomenon of this problem. Psychologists work with this, there are many articles on the net on this topic. I do not have a psychological education, so I will not breed rhetoric on this topic. But when you love yourself as a whole, as you are, as a woman or a man with your own characteristics and shortcomings, your dance will change dramatically! nine0003
If you tend to scold yourself in dance for all your mistakes, you have a critic or an angry Parent in your head who criticizes you in life.
"Who dresses like that? Why are you like a pig covered in crumbs? Normal people don't do that. Hands out of their asses. Crazy" - and so on. Perhaps in ordinary life you are so used to this voice that you do not notice it, consider it a normal part of yourself. And you can see it in the dance. This is another private manifestation of dislike and rejection of oneself.
A third case, slightly different, is excessive perfectionism.
my version
For some reason we compare ourselves with some ideal and get very upset because we don't resemble it. "The leg should rise to the ceiling, but mine is only 45 degrees." "She moves like plasticine, and I'm a log" . At the same time, we do not take into account at all how much time we spent on classes, and how much the person with whom we compare ourselves spent. Such a comparison is a good vector for development, but, you see, it’s stupid to depress that you, dancing for only 2 years and not doing anything extra, look much worse in dance than a teacher who has been dancing, say, for more than 10 years, of which 8 spent in ballet class, attended many master classes and has been teaching abroad for the last few years.
And for some reason, at the same time, we still do not take into account our personal characteristics, do not take into account the speed with which our body is rebuilt, and this is always a long time. Ask your favorite teachers what they did, how much time they spent working on themselves. nine0003
Give yourself time.
If you started dancing in your 20s or 30s, never compare yourself to someone who has been dancing since childhood. Even if he is in the same group as you. His body is completely different, and he will grasp the material much faster. Just take it for granted. The one who has been taking care of his body for a long time will always grasp the material faster and better than the one for whom everything is for the first time and there is an unplowed field of future discoveries ahead. But that doesn't mean you can't catch up with him. You will succeed if you want it, but the rebuilding will take a long time. A poorly done movement and a quality movement share a huge path, consisting of micro-stages of your body development, attention and awareness, each of which is very important, but not visible at the starting point of the path.
nine0003
If you experience perfectionism, learn to compare yourself to yourself :
What have I learned in the last six months? What did I get better at? What should I work on next? What am I still not getting? What am I doing to make it better? - Yes, maybe you still see yourself as the worst in the group, and maybe it’s even true, but then you don’t get dizzy when cornering, your back is straighter, maybe your leg is now raised 5 degrees higher , or you have become a little better to hear your partner. - It's important to notice! It is important to see your growth in small details, to mark your steps forward, the stages of overcoming yourself, even if they seem insignificant to you. This gives self-confidence, confidence, inner strength and ease to accept your mistakes. nine0003
Allow yourself to be wrong.
The higher our level, the more demands we make on ourselves, and the more difficult it is to accept our mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, even tops, just not everyone can see it.
