Under this topic, I would like to talk about something incredibly important. About something that covers the subject not only about our performance in dancing but in general, our whole life.
We are chasing knowledge about steps, figures, combination, we learn musicality, tricks and many cool stuff... but for the majority of the time, we just don't feel like we are in there. You see professionals or people who are in this since their early days, and you see THIS thing. This thing that puts all the eyes and attention on them. The beauty of each movement and its flow. Then you start to compare yourself, and you try to add more figures, more complicated stuff... I think for many of us, when learning social dances like Zouk, Kizomba, Bachata, we have this action-reaction chain. I want to challenge you today to break this chain and think outside of the box.
I truly believe that each of us can be there, even sooner than you think. You know already some figures and steps. With just a few of those, you should be able to create a quality dance.
Easy to say but how to do it.
There are many, many different ways to improve our dance, but here it is, one of my favorite techniques to improve social dancing;
Slow motion.
What you want to do now, is to choose your favorite dance move/figure and try to perform it in the slowest possible motion. Try to repeat it many times, each time challenging yourself more. When you have to do something super slow, you should force yourself to focus on every little moment of your action:
1. Focus on the range of the movement, and on angles. How big is the movement? How far or close move parts of your body.
2. Pay attention to the muscle tone, stretch, and contraction. Try to feel in every moment different muscles playing the main role in the movement.
3. Focus on your body weight, position, and posture of your body.
Things that you could fake by doing them fast, now you need to excel to make them right. In slow motion, you can take time to learn more about your partner.
4. Focus on your partner's mobility, their energy, their flexibility.
5. Focus on building a connection. How fast is your partner responding, reacting? Do they fully understand your lead?
6. Think about the density of movement, where is the energy coming from, and how are you able to control it.
and the most important
7. Enjoy the movement all the way.
Try to do it in silence, then with slow music, after with any, different kinds of music and try not to be affected by the fast tempo or the rhythm changes. This part of the exercise is not focused on a musicality yet.
This is an amazing tool to dance the song at the party which you truly hate. It's like you give bigger value to the dance and your partner than to the song that isn't your favorite.
After practicing this way anything you know, you should be able to live throughout these movements, not only have them done, and rush to do another figure. After all, it's about being in the movement, being in control and connection. It's not about going from A to B, but it's about the whole journey there.
When you feel like in control of the movement, connected with your partner, fully aware of each moment, you can start to put your attention more into your surrounding and music.
Try to feel the floor, amount of space. Listen to music carefully.
Let the magic happen.
I believe this slow-motion experiment can bring amazing benefits to your dancing. When you are fully present and aware in each moment of your dance, feeling the joy of the motion, you have THIS that everyone is looking for. This gives a completely different quality to everything you do.
Try to apply this exercise into different areas of your life, and actually try to think about your whole life this way.
I hope you will find it useful and see you soon on the dance floor!
Here is some amazing video with this non-journey life approach. Enjoy.
Photography: Shaun Spiteri Photography