While stretching, many young dancers realize that lessening the tension in one area of the body will lessen the tension in all areas. Russia, which has historically been on the forefront of dance excellence, quickly realized the potential to extend this lesson to all areas of life.
If you want to achieve your dreams; if you want to be flexible and successful, start with your shampoo.
When considering whether to learn a new trick or learn how to dance, take a moment and remember what Bob Hope would say.
Many dancers spend their careers feeling stuck in a rut. Though they have a ‘career doing what they love,’ they are actually rarely able to dance what they want to dance. While some dancers are acutely aware of this fact, and are able to act on it, others live with a constant, dull ache that arises from a mysterious unhappiness. For these unaware dancers, it is all too easy to remain in a company or school because it is the logical thing to do, even though it is hurting them.
If you are unsure whether you are truly happy with where you are and what you are doing, test yourself. Imagine someone asking ‘how are you?’ and before you can think about a proper response, speak. Say out loud what you feel deep down, and if the answer surprises you, it is time to get to know yourself and where you really want to be and what you really want to be doing.
If that seems silly, watch this video, and imagine what it would be like to react instantly and truthfully to every situation.
#4: When considering dance safety, always keep in mind the physical limits of a dance space-width, depth, and HEIGHT. While your dance space might have a high ceiling, remain aware of any hanging lights.
As we move into the Fall season, many dancers are buckling down and training hard in order to be ready for audition season in the Spring. Many of these dancers spend their time training hard, and yet still fail miserably in auditions. If only they had known that they were not fully prepared!
The fact is, these dancers are unprepared because they treat auditions like any other class. However, an audition is not like a regular class. It is a brief opportunity to show everything that you can do. The auditioners do not want to see you doing ballet. They are tired of watching ballet. Once you have shown that you can do plies and tendus, the judges know that you have a solid grasp on ballet technique. Now the real audition begins, and it is up to you to shape it in a way that shows you off. If you can sing, launch into your favorite medley. If you can act, you had better be able to whip out a brilliant monologue. If you can paint, your dance bag should contain canvasses and a wide array of colors and brushes. If you can meditate, sit down in the middle of the studio and do so. Everyone will be talking about you, and no one will forget you. And that is just what you wanted all along.
Once you have your talent down, and you want to know that you are physically ready for an audition, watch the following clip. When you can do everything shown, and more, you are ready. Until then, there will always be someone who is better than you. That is unacceptable, and should make you feel bad about yourself. And what better way to feel motivated!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bskmdKM4aeM
Dance safety often involves attention to myriad minute and difficult details. This is not one of those. In dance, like in geometric proofs, there is given information that we must accept as true in order to be successful. Please treat this dance safety advice as a given:
You need to avoid falling off of the stage
#2. Appropriate attire does not always necessitate putting certain items on. It also means taking certain items off. For instance:
Don’t forget to take off your sweat pants
Dance Safety is a crucial area of study for all dancers. While it is helpful to study what techniques we want to include in our dancing, sometimes it is equally useful to determine the things we want to avoid. For instance, when landing from a jump, we want to use safe dancing technique by landing softly through our feet with our knees over our toes. We want to avoid landing on a body part that is unable to cushion our landing.
With that in mind, here is a video detailing one thing to avoid while dancing:
#1. Don’t land on your face
Young-and not so young-dancers often wonder what and who they can watch to learn from. Sports players can watch videos of games both excellent and poor, and learn lessons from both. Since dance is an art, however, the differences in videos are often artistic rather than technical. Differences in interpretation cannot be ranked, and every individual will have a different opinion of every dance and dancer. This means that there really is no overarching list of videos every dancer should watch. Except for the one I have compiled on this site.
Here is the first installment in the list of videos every aspiring dancer should watch:
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Peaceful Warrior
The Matrix
Airplane!
Equilibrium
Please comment and let myself and others know what you learned from each video.