How to dance at a bar

How to Dance at a Club or Party

You probably know people who can dance at a club without a second thought.

They just go out, have a few drinks, get down on the dance floor, and have a great night.

Meanwhile, you're seized by panic and insecurity just thinking about dancing at a club.

And whenever you do drag yourself out, you stay glued to the wall and watch everyone else let loose on the dance floor.

But guess what? Those awkward feels are completely normal. And we PROMISE you can overcome them!

Follow these 5 simple steps and never worry about feeling left out again.

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1. Find the beat/rhythm as you make your way towards the dance floor

Don't expect yourself to bust out a Step Up routine out of nowhere as soon as you step foot on the dance floor.

This isn't a movie! Start small – really small – by just bobbing your head to the beat.

Do this before you even get on the dance floor. Think of it this way: Music is the one thing that lubricates the whole experience of being at the club.

It sets the mood as soon as you walk in until the moment you walk out. You have to be comfortable with the music first.

‍So start interacting with the music right away. You can listen and nod your head a you're holding your drink, hanging with a friend, or even sitting down.

This is an easy way to set yourself up for success on the dance floor before you even start dancing.

Your body will already have a handle on the rhythm, so you're more likely to stay on beat by the time you do get your feet steppin'.

Watch this video to learn how to find and count beats in music:

2. Start with a small bounce / groove

Once you're on, or around, the dance floor, start bouncing with your whole body.

Think of this bounce as a bigger version of your head bob. You're still moving to that same rhythm, but now with your knees, core, and chest.

You know how a baby bounces on his knees when he hears a song he likes? Like that, but not as jolt-y.

Ease into those bounces calmly, then slowly build up your energy. This helps make your dancing look more natural.

Carlo Darang describes what a bounce / groove is in this video:

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3. Learn simple steps

Got a handle on the music? Great.

Started bouncing with your body? Check. Now, let's get your feet moving!

But wait – you won't know which foot to step where without any practice.

So learn a few basic dance steps before you go to dance at a club.

This video will teach you how to do 3 basic dance moves that work with any song:

Wanna learn more basic party moves like these?

Check out Bianca's "Intro to Dance" program on STEEZY Studio! It'll teach you everything you need to know to get down on the dance floor.

Click here to take the first 4 classes for free.

4. Let loose

Now that you've got the basics of dance down, it's time to put on a few finishing touches to make sure you look comfortable and confident with every move.

These quick tips will help you refine your dancing so you look more loose, groovy, and comfortable:

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5. Join the party

By this point, you've got a handle on dancing 1. on beat 2. with your whole body 3. using steps.

But you didn't come to dance at a club to do all this alone!

Once you have that base, dance with the people around you.

If you're in a crowd or a group of friends, then you can play off of their movements and energy.

Mimic the moves your friends are doing, lip sync with them, rap Nicki's entire verse in Motor Sport from memory.

And if the DJ or song lyrics tell you to do something (like put your hands up or jump), then do it!

These are little things you can't predict or practice – remember that you're out to have fun, not to play DDR in your head.

Grinding (or whatever you call it) on someone is its own topic – but whether you're dancing with one person or a whole group of people, the most important thing to do is to... Stay in rhythm!

You and your partner or friends could be doing totally different things. They could be jumping while you're pumping your arms.

She could be swaying side to side as you're 2-stepping.

But as long as you're moving to the same beat, it'll still feel like you're dancing together.

(The closer you physically get, though, the more similar you want your movements to be so that you don't end up hitting each other or creating friction between your moves. Dance with them!)

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I hope these tips help you kiss those insecurities goodbye!

Follow these 5 steps and you'll realize that it's possible, and actually quite easy, to dance at a club.

You just need the right resources, some practice, and a dash of confidence. ;)

Have fun!

How to Dance At A Basic "Good Enough" Level

- Chris MacLeod, MSW

It's hard to avoid dancing entirely in social situations, especially when you're younger. Arguably, everyone should at least become passable at it. It's not as hard to pick up the basics as you may think, and it's smoother sailing once you can join some friends who want to dance and hold your own.

You don't have to reach a particularly high standard

You just need to be good enough that you can get on the dance floor, blend in with everyone else, not look like an idiot, and not feel overly uncomfortable while you're there. (Lots of people are at least somewhat awkward about dancing. That's why they have to down a few drinks and wait for the dance floor to get busy before they step out on it.)

You don't have to look like someone out of a music video. You've just got to be decent enough to get by. Being better than the minimum never hurts of course, but just knowing the basics will put you way ahead of all the non-dancers out there.

If you're straight, try not to worry too much about what the opposite sex thinks. They don't have ultra-picky standards

Straight people don't purely dance to impress the opposite sex, but it is often something they think about.

For guys

Generalization time. Women and men have different ideas of what a good dancer is. Guys often see dancing as a skill to show off. Being better than other dudes on the dance floor is important to them. Their typical image of a "good dancer" is a gymnastic break dancer doing a bunch of flips, or a guy doing a fancy, fluid Popping & Locking routine. A woman's concept of a good dancer is a closer to a passably moving guy who looks comfortable, confident, and like he's having fun.

When a woman wants to dance with you, all she really wants is that...

You are there with her
You are dancing with her
You are not dancing horribly
You are not being too forward and creepy

For women

This totally sounds like a simplistic stereotype, but most of the time when you're dancing with a guy he's not making a detailed critique of your style. He's probably just thinking, "Yay! I'm dancing with a woman!" Or if he's watching you dance from farther away, he's likely thinking, "She seems like someone I might want to talk to. I wonder if she'd shoot me down though..." Even if he seems like the most genuinely suave, confident guy ever, he's probably still thinking like that on some level. He's probably fifty times more worried about how his dancing looks to you than the other way around. Even he's an amazing dancer and you're not, he likely isn't holding it against you.

(That was from my observations as a straight guy. I'm not gay so I won't try to write from their perspective, but I can't imagine their standards for dance partners are radically different.)

Try not to worry too much about what strangers think

Easier said than done, but don't use up too much mental energy fretting about how random bystanders are judging you. Occasionally people will snicker and point to people who are dancing because they're really just too nervous to do it themselves. Random dudes sucking on their beer aren't your audience. Also, like the point above mentioned, your average dancer is more preoccupied with how they look than anything.

If there's one thing to keep in mind it's to be toned-down and low key

Don't be a spaz and try to pull off some fancy moves unless you 100% know you'll look good doing them. It's better to reel yourself in. Over reaching and flailing around is worse than blending in and being a bit boring and unoriginal. Don't feel you have to pull off tons of new moves every second and put on a show for everyone either. It's okay to dance in a simple, repetitive way and just enjoy your friends' company.

Acquire a basic, reliable dancing 'core'

You know when you're watching a movie or TV show and there's a scene set in a dance club, how the extras in the background will often to be dancing in a kind of simple, nondescript way? That's the 'core' I'm talking about. If you know how to do that, then in a lot of situations that's actually all you need. However, if you want, you can later choose to build off your base and make your style more fancy.

To get that core stand in front of a mirror with some not-too-fast music on, or just read along and imagine you're doing the following:

To dance you've got to move your body in time to the beat of the music. The most basic newbie mistake you can make is to move out of sync with the beat. Don't know the beat I'm referring to? Put on a song and listen for the underlying, repeating thump-thump-thump pattern. Every style of music has a different speed. It doesn't take much practice to learn how to hear it.
Okay, you're just standing there in front of the mirror with some song playing. Now try moving your arms back and forth to the beat slightly, while keeping your legs ramrod straight. You'll notice that looks totally off. So the next most basic thing you've got to do is bounce up and down on your knees. So keep everything else still, and just move your knees up and down to the music.
That still looks weird, since you're just going up and down like a piston. So rotate your torso a bit in time with your knee movements, a little like you're skiing. Keep your torso fairly loose and relaxed.
That's looking better, but your arms are still stiffly hanging at your side. So try relaxing them a bit and let them swing up and down with your knee bends and torso rotations.

Once you're standing in one spot, bouncing on your knees, turning your torso a bit, and moving your arms somewhat, that's about the absolute bare minimum you can do to be considered dancing. Like I said, sometimes that's all you need. If you didn't know how to dance at all, and stopped right here, that's a lot better than nothing.

However, while still staying in the realm of dancing in a super generic 'core' way, you can do little things to spice up the bare minimum:

Don't just limply swing your arms, get your shoulders into it.
Take steps side to side, or back and forth.
Mix up your arm movements.
Nod your head.
Do little pivots or twists on one foot, or both feet.
Don't just slightly rotate your torso, move it back and forth, or from one side to the other.
Pick up one foot ever so slightly, then the other, to kind of march in place. Don't overdo the movement and look like a robot, just move your feet a tad.
Mix up the possible arm, torso, and leg variations. Find a combination that looks good and do it for a while, then switch to another one. Don't change things up to the point where you're doing something new every half a second. That looks too scattered.

At this point you're hardly going to win a dance competition, but you're at the level of those movie extras, and 75% of the people you'll see out at a bar. At this point you really could develop no further in your dancing ability and be able to get by on a dance floor for the rest of your life.

The thing with this basic core is that it's pretty adaptable to the standard kinds of music you'll come across. If you're dancing to Hip Hop, just make all your movements a little more Hip Hop-ish. If you're dancing to retro 80's Pop, just make all your moves a little more cheesy and energetic.

Add some more fancy moves and sequences onto your core if you want to

If you dance in a basic way you'll get by, but you won't stand out a ton. If you want to look a little slicker you can start adding in some canned movements, or sequences of moves. There's more of a Risk/Reward thing going on at this stage. You've got to work at it more as well. Dancing generically is safer and easier. If you try to pull off some awesome routine and bungle the execution you'll look clueless or goofy. You need to practice to make sure you look good. Some places to learn new moves are:

By watching strangers dancing at a club and stealing ideas from them.
By watching your friends dance.
By watching movies or music videos.
Through online video tutorials.
Through dancing-oriented video games.
By experimenting and trying to come up with some moves of your own.
By taking an actual class.

The best way to learn is to just practice

If you get into the habit of dancing around at home in the spare moments you're listening to music it won't be long before you start to get the hang of things. After that the more time you put in, the more you'll refine your style.

Get in front of a mirror, put some good music on, and start dancing to it in the basic way I mentioned above. Remember, if your instinct is to jump around a lot or be a bit spazzy, consciously tone yourself down. Try to get comfortable with the typical, boring way of dancing first. A lot of the time on actual dance floors you won't have that much room anyway, so if you only practice moves that requires a lot of space you'll be put in an awkward spot when you end up somewhere more packed.

One way to deliberately practice is to try working on one aspect of dancing at a time, then putting the pieces together. This may not look good in the moment, but it'll let you concentrate on and isolate certain aspects of how you move. So you might keep everything else fairly still, and only try out different arm movements, or ways of moving your torso. Or you could try different ways of stepping back and forth, or moving only one leg at a time.

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Practice different dancing scenarios

Aside from figuring out how to move your body, there are different situations you'll find yourself dancing under:

Dancing on a dance floor where you have a lot of room

This is the easiest as you have all the space you need, and you can do somewhat more showy stuff if you feel like it. Sometimes the ocean of space can feel like too much to work with or make you feel exposed and self-conscious though.

Dancing on a crowded dance floor

Here your movements are really restricted. When you're practicing make sure to keep your feet rooted to the ground and don't swing your arms out too much. Try to make your movements look good anyway.

Dancing close and face to face with someone else

The issue here is knocking knees and not being able to extend your arms too far in front of you. Try dancing really close to a wall to get an idea of what it's like. Or you can try dancing really close to a full length mirror. It's totally goofy looking, but it's still a good way to get used to the feeling of being near someone.

Dancing with a partner

Here I'm referring to partner dancing in an informal, improvised way, not doing a specific dance like the Tango. Of course this is something that you can't practice on your own super effectively. Still, you could put your hands out in front of you like you're holding someone's waist or shoulders and practice moving within that restriction. I don't blame you if you don't want to do this. It's definitely a bit silly. Still, if the idea of dancing with someone makes you uncomfortable, practicing like this can take the edge off.

More practical advice would be to take a salsa, swing, or ballroom dancing class, asking your friends to teach you to dance, or practicing with your partner, if you're seeing someone. If it doesn't make you anxious, you could even try going to a club and trying to dance with someone you meet there.

Non-verbal communication is important as well

Body language plays a role in dancing too. It would look strange if someone was dancing to a 70's funk song with the mannerisms and facial expressions of someone listening to 90's Gangsta Rap. You don't want to be too exaggerated or hammy with your body language, but it is something to subtly bring into the equation. The other basic thing about body language is that sometimes the difference between someone who looks good and so-so on the dance floor is their non-verbals. If someone looks uncomfortable and bored, they may come across as dancing poorly. The same movements with some energy and confidence can look fine.

Dancing is a physical activity

Simple tip here. The better shape you're in, the easier dancing will be. You'll be able to do more, have more energy, and keep at it for longer. Basic things like aerobic fitness, flexibility, and some endurance in your legs and torso help.

Dancing to an unfamiliar style

For the poppy dance music you most typically hear in bars and clubs you can usually get away with dancing in the generic style I outlined earlier. Though if you've ever been to a club that caters to a different scene you'll know other genres of music have their own types of dancing.

If you're in one of these places, it's not the end of the world if you go ahead and dance the usual generic way, and just try to make your movements conform somewhat to that subculture's style. You won't fit in perfectly, but no one is going to run you out of the joint. However, if you're interested in dancing to that type of music more in the future, it's obvious that you'd want to try to learn its more specialized moves.

A semi-warning about dance classes

Without a doubt you'll learn a lot if you a take a class, but sometimes people get a shock when they then go to a club and have to dance spontaneously. They can't just start swing dancing or bust out a 14-step choreographed Hip Hop routine. There are people who have taken years of dance classes, but they're inhibited when it comes to dancing at clubs. They feel lost, put on the spot, and like they're expected to perform.

Dancing badly on purpose

I think there's a good time and a bad time to dance in a poor or silly way as a joke. The bad time to do it is when you're not comfortable or experienced with dancing, and you dance like goofball to avoid having to do it for real. People tend to see through this, and any humor that comes out of it only has a shelf life of a minute or so.

The good time to do it is when you're with some friends, you all know how to dance properly, and you just throw in the occasional campy movement or routine as a way to joke around and have more fun. It comes off well in this situation because everyone realizes you're doing it because you choose to, not because you're trying to hide how ill at ease you feel.

Drinking to loosen yourself up

Lots of people need to get some alcohol in them before they feel confident enough to hit the dance floor. In a perfect world everyone would feel comfortable dancing stone cold sober, but realistically some of us need a little extra help. Within reason I think this is fine.

When alcohol tends to be helpful is when someone knows how to dance half-decently, but are just a smidgen reserved - most people basically. When drinking tends to backfire is when someone doesn't really know how to dance, and never tries unless they're totally hammered. The results can be pretty sloppy. Things can also get embarrassing if someone is just learning how to dance and is inclined to be spazzy. The alcohol tends to bring those tendencies to the surface.

In conclusion

This is a trite thing to say, but despite everything you've just read, you should just enjoy yourself and not over analyze things. Have fun and don't worry about what other people think of you. Blah Blah Blah. The end.

How to learn to dance in clubs for a guy

Contents

How to move on the dance floor without looking ridiculous and clumsy - this question has probably worried the representatives of the stronger sex ever since the synchronized movements of couples in a waltz or mazurka. For at least a century now, men have had to guess what a profitable disco dance should be like. Unfortunately, even professional choreographers will not answer this question. But we will try to highlight the basic rules.

Hop and R'n'B

Rules to follow

Relax

Let's tell you a secret: most guys on the dance floor don't look stupid because they haven't taken lessons in dance studios and can't tell tectonics from r'n'b , but because they do not catch the rhythm of the music and cannot relax. And if no one usually pays attention to the first, then the second immediately catches the eye of others.

Hence the first rule: listen to music and let your body dance freely.

Choose a style

If you are a frequent discotheque visitor, you should choose a certain dance direction in which you will move on the dance floor. Of course, this will depend on the music that the DJ will put on, but for ten years now hip-hop and electronic music have not left the clubs. Therefore, you can master the basic movements of either one or the other. The "electronics" elements are a bit simpler, so it might be worth starting with them. Video tutorials to help you!

Try to vary your movements

If after watching the videos you still can't feel comfortable on the dance floor, you should consider signing up for a dance studio. An experienced teacher, a company of like-minded people and regular classes will quickly do their job, and you will finally be able to relax and stop having complexes while dancing. Plus, to the envy of your peers, you will no longer dance like a “newbie”.

Remember that everything is for fun

If you do somersaults on the court for ten minutes with a tense face, and then return to the table sweaty, your friends are unlikely to appreciate it. Understand that dancing is not a competition, but a completely cultural form of recreation. As they say, relax and have fun!

Let it all flow

Let go of your body and emotions, surrender to the music and move without paying attention to others. The tension in the dance is the main obstacle. Stop thinking about movements, no one will notice them in the crowd and darkness anyway.

How girls will evaluate movements on the dance floor

Perhaps the results of a study by scientists from Northumbria University will help answer the question of how to learn to dance in clubs for a guy. Experts studied which dance moves performed by a representative of the stronger sex attract women. The places were distributed as follows:

Head turns;
Pelvic twist;
Vigorous leg movements;
Large amplitude elements;
Uninhibited movements.

No matter how strange the rating may look, it is scientifically confirmed. However, many gain self-confidence on the dance floor only after attending a few lessons in a dance studio. By the way, in the Labosa club, there is a chance not only to learn how to move effectively, but also to meet your partner so as not to be alone at the disco.

How to dance in a club?

How to dance in a club?
02/26/15

Have you thought about what your dance looks like? Do you know what other people think of him? A party is an arena for playing and flirting, a theater show. This is a world where, behind the masks of vivid images, the truth is not easy to find out, but it can always be seen in the way a person moves and how he positions himself. The thing is, movements tell more than words. Each action is accompanied by a stream of non-verbal information that only the lazy do not see.

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A party is perhaps one of the few reasons to look your best! But it just so happened that in the understanding of modern youth, a club party is a fashion parade, a glamorous exhibition. They took care of everything: clean-shaven, sweetly perfumed, polished, varnished, pedicured, but no one asked himself the question “How to dance in a club?”. Few people even remember that they actually got together at a dance event.

“Is it nice to dance? What for? I will stand at the bar with a glass of champagne, I will twitch my legs, pretending that I will finish my drink right now - and I will start dancing! ”And now half of the club is standing at the bar, clutching a glass, dancing on one knee.

The general short-sightedness is striking: everyone is so preoccupied with appearance, but they have not even thought about how to dance properly in a club. The most "bomb" movement at the top of the dance hit parade is a dull marking time, and even then not in rhythm. With all the secular splendor, what happens on the dance floor is a complete failure.

As soon as you start dancing, the bohemian image disintegrates and the carriage turns into a pumpkin. It's frustrating to see charming people who move terribly. It's like giving a child a candy box with nothing in it.

In fact, club culture should stimulate and develop dance culture, but this does not happen. It is in the clubs that dance is in decline. And therein lies the paradox. Clubbers are saved only by solidarity: almost everyone dances out of the ordinary badly and, therefore, this is, as it were, normal. But nobody talks about it. As if there is an unspoken rule - "you dare to say how I dance - and I will tell you who you are."

We affirm that it is necessary for everyone to know how to dance in a club at a primitive level. In this age where information is readily available, it is a serious omission to consider yourself advanced and cool without having banal dance skills.

Answer honestly to yourself the question: “Do you dance well?”. Do you understand that dance picturesquely tells something about you that you would hardly like to say about yourself? By the way you move, you can get an idea of the following:

how fit are you
which muscles are atrophied, which are tight, how constrained you are
how confident are you
how are things with your style and taste, etc.

It is not surprising that today many people "do not like" to dance. And they do it right: If you want to look beautiful, freeze and don't move! Or learn to be beautiful in motion.
But it happens to meet real beauties. People who look cool and dance well delight and deliver true aesthetic pleasure. It is with such characters that you want to communicate, they often turn out to be really interesting. Looking at them, it seems that they have a special talent. But few people wondered if it could be developed.

What qualities do you need to have to arouse the interest of others at a party?

1. Pleasant appearance, interesting image.

2. Positive mood, manners and delivery.

3. Stylish dance.

There is no problem to dress up and smile. But it is impossible to dance smoothly if you do not have a special skill or you are not a natural talent. So, you want to be attractive at the party? There is a solution.

Imagine movements that are comfortable and comfortable for the body. They are universal, suitable for any music, look beautiful with any physique. They are simple, easy to learn and remember, they are not forgotten over time. They can be danced cyclically - due to their balance, they do not bother and look cool, no matter how much they are danced. All of them are easily combined with each other, you can improvise on them. No need to memorize sequences of movements - each part of the body dances separate movements in its own mode. You don't look like you went to dance school. It seems as if you are mobile by nature.

This is not a myth. This is reality. Such movements form the basis of Modern Dance. Learning to dance club dances can be the same as learning to read or write. You do not need to walk for six months and memorize a certain dance. All you need is to master a few simple harmonious movements, bring them to automatism and learn how to switch from one to another. This simplest solution gives great opportunities: frees up attention and allows you to communicate in the process of dancing, while the body dances by itself. You don't think about how to pronounce sounds when you speak? ... The same thing happens with the body. It has mastered the "language" and can communicate freely.

No more worrying about how you move. Knowing your dance technique, you know for sure that you look cool. Possession of dance technique liberates your body, stiffness and stiffness of movements disappear. Agree, this way you will look more confident and attractive.

There are things that are timeless and fashionable. These are the laws and principles of the structure of the body and how it moves in space. Fashion and style are a fleeting breath of wind in the context of time. The fundamental foundations of biomechanics (how the body works) are the very essence of movement, the core of dance. Eternal, immutable, unconditional. To learn how to dance correctly in a club, primitive knowledge about how you are arranged is enough: how to get into the rhythm with your whole body, how to beat melodies through plasticity, how to simultaneously perform different movements with different parts of the body, how to give them the properties of sound, which is most important in dance, what can you do without?

Answers to these questions and how to learn how to dance club dances, we tell in our classes. What we teach is unique. It took us more than twenty years to synthesize the essence of modern club dance, the seed capable of growing masterpieces. In a few lessons, your idea of dance will turn over, you move in a fundamentally different way. The basics of dance will solve not only the problem of how to dance in a club, but also how to dance at a corporate party, holiday, karaoke, in a bar. Moreover, even in life you will move and look different.

Understanding the essence of movement opens up a new dimension for us. You will learn how to dance club dances as quickly as possible. The speed of your learning depends on two parameters: the physical condition at the current moment and how quickly you assimilate information. We will be able to give a more accurate forecast of your success after the first introductory session, in which we talk about the tasks and priorities in training, explain the strategy and plan. In the introductory lesson, you receive personal recommendations to speed up the process and get the result as quickly as possible.