9 Valuable Tips to help you improve your dance technique.
1. Don't relay today on yesterday's body!
If your technique yesterday was on point, today might not be the same. And that's ok. Today your body might feel stiff in certain parts, sore, tired, dehydrated and maybe you need to warm up longer or stretch better.
Today isn't yesterday and you need to listen to your body's needs, today!
2. Practice imaginary.
Try to envision the movement you're practicing. How does it look like outside of you, how does it feel like, how is supposed to feel and look like? Try to see each movement without separating yourself from the image. Try to become that image on all levels of experience. Closing your eyes and seeing the step in front of you before executing it, can help you calm down, gain more control, awareness and perspective.
3. Alignment is KEY!
You might perform strengthening exercises for specific muscle groups or body areas but still something doesn't work. Be mindful of your body placement and correct alignment. If you perform strengthening exercises on a misalignment you're only strengthening the misalignment and your technique won't improve. During strengthening exercises if you loose natural spine, balance or control, stop an re-organize your body each and every time before continuing.
4. Dance with joy!
Instead of focusing on anxiety and negative, sabotaging self talk, try to dance yourself up into the movement. Dance the balance and focus on the reason why you're dancing and why you're trying to better yourself. Use empowering and supportive self talk before performing any difficult step. It's good to be your hardest critic to know where to improve but you also gotta be your biggest cheerleader and supporter, otherwise you lose balance! ;)
Performing a difficult step or movement each and every time on anxious thoughts, you program your body to be afraid, unsure and unsecure. Change your tactics!
5. Use rhythm
Try to see and feel where each step and movement falls onto the music. Be receptive. Music leads you. It shows you the way!
Music teaches us to listen and to adapt. Learn from music!
6. Maintain a calm center and conscious control!
To attain fast progress, dancers sometimes become tense and stressed over certain steps and they lose center within themselves.
Find a still center and allow the dance to unfold around it.