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Dance Practice: Where to Start
If you want your practice to actually make you a better dancer, whether you dance solo or with a partner, this page is for you. I've put my practice lessons in a simple order: a framework for every session first, then quality over quantity, then motivation and consistency, and finally ways to put it all into practice. Work through them in order, and come back to any step whenever you need it.
Part 1
How to practise
A clear structure for every session, and why the quality of each repetition matters more than the hours you put in.
Step 1 · Framework
How to Practise Dancing Successfully: A 7 Step Framework
Instead of running your routine over and over, take one principle, such as footwork, timing or posture, through seven steps from a loose warm-up to performance rehearsal, dancing each step with no music, slow music and full tempo.
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Step 2 · Deliberate practice
What Is Mastery? The 4 Stages of Learning in Dance
Mastery is the fourth stage of learning, unconscious competence, when a skill is so hardwired that your routine just happens, and getting there takes deliberate practice and a lot of hours.
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Step 3 · Quality over quantity
Quality vs Quantity in Dance Practice: Part 1
More practice doesn't automatically make you a better dancer: what moves you forward is the quality of each repetition, and then a good quantity of that quality work.
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Step 4 · Focused practice
Quality vs Quantity in Dance Practice: Part 2
Time in the studio doesn't equal skill, so do about an hour of focused, intense work, and walk into every practice with the intention of walking out better than when you walked in.
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Motivation and consistency
How to set goals for your training, get yourself into the studio and keep turning up.
Step 5 · Goals
Why You Must Have Goals for Your Dancing
Goals are for growth, so set an A goal based on what you want rather than what you think you can get, then make sure your training, habits and commitment line up with it.
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Step 6 · Motivation
How to Stay Highly Motivated to Train and Practise
Not feeling like practising is normal because your brain is wired to conserve energy, so make the first step tiny, like just turning up at the studio, and let the good feeling come once you start moving.
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Step 7 · Commitment
The Difference Between Interest and Commitment in Dancing
An interested dancer trains when it's convenient, while a committed dancer shows up consistently, so be honest with yourself about where you are, then step it up.
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Step 8 · Consistency
Expectation vs Reality of Your Dancing
Most disappointment in dancing comes from expectations that don't match the work going in, so define the result you want, match your training to it and be consistent.
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Put it into practice
Ways to review your training, practise on your own and rehearse in your mind.
Step 9 · Review
3 Questions to Ask Yourself as a Dancer
Ask yourself three simple questions, what are you doing, is it working and what isn't working, then act on the answers with small changes that add up to a very different result.
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Step 10 · Solo practice
Solo Practice, Slow Foxtrot and the Art of Performance
When you practise solo, dance as if your partner is in your arms and dance how you want to look on the floor, with your technique and routine solid before you work on performance.
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Step 11 · Mind practice
Visualisation for Dancers: The Most Powerful Mind Practice
Rehearse your routines in your mind's eye, flawlessly and through your own eyes, as the dancer you want to become, every day alongside your physical practice.
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Each page puts my lessons for one dance or topic in learning order.
Ballroom
Waltz · Slow Foxtrot · Tango · Viennese Waltz · Quickstep
Latin
Cha Cha Cha · Samba · Rumba · Paso Doble · Jive
New Vogue and mindset
New Vogue · Dancer Mindset
Keep learning with the rest of my lessons on the blog.
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