It is often frustrating when a dancer is practicing every day and night and working hard on his craft, yet his skills are not being improved. These dancers reach a point where they can no longer put something new to the table. They maintain the same approach, energy, and vibe.
Hitting a plateau is something common, and what is more common is that it may take the dancers years and years until they realize that they are really stuck. Please put in mind that I am not talking about dancers who are satisfied with their level of dance and are not looking forward to improving their skills.
The type of audience I am sending out my message to is the dancers who are not improving even though they are putting time and effort. Cypher with other people. Changing the environment you dance in is going to spark your brain in a way that you will view yourself differently than when you dance with your close friends. Your friends would give you props for everything you do, while others would be more critical of your dance abilities. Their feedback, in my opinion, is more valuable than your friends’ comments to some extent. Also, dancing with new people means that you will be inspired differently and that will improve you somehow. Go back to the foundation. Practicing the foundation over and over again will help you learn more about the details of the music, for instance if you learn a move or a dance skill that you have acquired, you will start questioning other things such as the position of your head, the amount of energy you should put in a muscle, or the feelings behind a certain move. Those details will let you think of the foundation in a unique way compared to the first time you learnt it as a beginner.
This gap will create concepts that will make you refresh your dance style. Free yourself. Am I advocating for open-mindedness? Didn’t I just talk about how important foundation is? Am I contradicting myself? The answer is both ideas are worthwhile. Freeing yourself means that you should add your own flavor to your dance aka having your own style. The misconception is that people chase the philosophy of having their own style and ignore the foundation. It is a combination of both you should let loose of foundation and focus on creating new stuff but at the same time, you have to know that there are rules to follow while being yourself. A bad example of ignoring the foundation is that a lot of the so called “dubstep music dancers” take the eye candy moves of popping and ignore the foundation claiming that it’s “their” style. If you love waving, tutting, and robot that is amazing, but if you don’t pop while doing them that is cultural appropriation. The key is to balance between both ideas and create your own ideas while staying within the circle of the dance.
Comments
Post a Comment