Post Dance Competition Reflections

It's been about a week and a half since my first dance competition at Indy Dance Explosion.  I have had time to recover, reflect, and ponder over my mistakes and successes at my first major dance event.

Initial takeaways from the event were overwhelmingly positive.  No, it was not as scary as I thought it was going to be.  Even though I forgot my Night Club routine during warm-ups and sped through it during the comp to the point where Brian had to tell me to "Slow down!" through clenched teeth, I did not forget it.  And miraculously, I did not forget any of my other routines either.  Could I have done the Waltz a little better and made my Two Step tighter? Sure.  But overall, I had no major glitches.

I had fun getting dressed up and putting on makeup (besides eyeliner) for the first time in 8 years. Yes, 8 years.  And that in itself was a good experience because it gave me confidence and reminded me what fun it was to dress up a bit.

Even though there is MUCH room for me to improve in all the dances I took away a few Golds for several of my dances which Brian tells me is good.  I also got a bunch of great technique tips from Brian that I can work on at my own leisure.  I love those solo turn drills and footwork techniques that I can do by myself.  That way I can dance on my own for an hour every day and really prepare for my dance lessons.  Luckily I have recently found a secret, mirror-lined room at my gym where I can practice!

So my overall feelings and reflections are positive.  I think the only hard part of attending a dance event is watching everyone else perform-not just in the compeitions but also socially.  Some of the dancers have been dancing for so long and they make it look incredibly easy.  But I always force myself not to get discouraged because you can't compare your dance career to someone else's beginning, middle, or end.  My main goal right now is to look more "natural" which just means more time drilling the basic footwork so I can force my body into the muscle memory it needs to MAKE it look natural.  And apart from that I don't take it to seriously.  Dance is my hobby, not my job and I want to keep it that way!

Getting into position for the Waltz routine.

Key Dance Pointers (Week of Competition)

It’s the week of competition and I’m more excited than nervous.  Well I was not nervous until I realized I was only doing a heal lead about 35% of the time in Waltz and Brian told me “they take off a lot of points for that!” “But don’t worry”, he assured me.  How can I not worry when left with parting words such as that!!! However,  I feel much better after we talked through each of the dances and the one takeaway I can focus on when performing each.  And here they are- for each dance these are my main weakness and the things I will be focusing on come Saturday when I am competing.

 1)   Waltz- Heal Lead! Gosh darn it! (and good posture)     

 2)  Night Club-Keep arms strong and open while making good arm lines.  (and good posture)

       3)  Cha Cha-  Keep steps compact and tight with feet turned out instead of straight (and good posture)

 4)  Two Step- Remember to open up each side when turning to gain momentum while pivoting (and good posture)

 5)  West Coast Swing- Keep right wrist straight, not bent while dancing (and good posture)

Yes, posture is king in all the dances so that will be my main focus.  The other items I mentioned are also pivotal to me looking my best.  I will report back next week when the competition is over to post my reflections.  Until then, I am super excited to dance all weekend!

Ready for competition!

Don't Think - Just Dance! (One Week From Competition)

How does one feel one week out from a dance competition? Overwhelmed, nervous, excited, apprehensive, stressed, elated- yes perhaps all of these things.  I'll tell you how it feels.  It feels like someone asked you what you did last weekend and while you are telling them about how you had two drinks with your friend you are already halfway through your Waltz routine.

Why does it feel like that?  Because that is totally what Brian did to me during my last lesson.  No warm up, no pre-dancing. Just a hey how are you and by the way we are waltzing right now.  And I got through it!!! I think that is what the week before competition feels like.  It feels like you can go out and perform any of your routines at a drop of a hat without someone cheer leading you or giving you any notice or warning.  And that feels good!

Of course there are still things I am working on- like perpetually bending my knees in Waltz and Night Club so that I can stay low to the ground, or focusing on my Two Step form so that I can turn faster.  Or even keeping my fingers stretched and pointed out so that the dance energy flows and I have good arm lines.

But really this week is about feeling comfortable with all my routines which I do! I am more terrified that I am going to injure myself this week as I am extremely prone to injury and I already injured my knee running two days ago.  So I think I may just wrap myself in bubble wrap and stay in my dance happy world and not think about the fact that it is ONE WEEK TIL COMPETITION!

Form and Feeling - Two Weeks from Competition

What is a dancer's mindset two weeks from competition? I can't speak for everyone but for me it has come down to two things - form and feeling.  When I started learning each routine respectively for Night Club, Waltz, Cha Cha, West Coast, and Two Step the I was really focused on just memorizing routines.  Of course, remembering footwork is key to getting through any routine! But now, that I know the footwork for my routines I can really focus on the form and feeling for each dance.

How do you explain form and feeling? It's really different for each dance.  Of course connection with your partner is key to any dance and I have addressed that in previous posts, but each dance feels different.  In Two Step the connection feels tight and strong and the dance basically feels good if all turns are executed quickly and cleanly.  West Coast feels more like an elastic band. As you dance you stretch in and away from your partner while completing the footwork and keeping time to the music.  Waltz feels like an intimate partnership.  In Waltz you have to stay low to the floor and your lower body has to meet your partners with each step.  As a result you are really dancing in tandem with your partner.  Waltz is also so focused on beauty and elegance so if you are not stretched up and away from your partner, while keeping your body low to the ground, the dance does not look elegant.  Night Club feels like an easy Waltz.  You have to stay low to the ground and connected but the steps are more basic.  Each person just needs to focus on keeping the steps long and elegant and the form wide and open.  And Cha Cha? It feels quick, tight, compact and fast.  If you can keep time to the music, focus on arm lines, and not do weird things with your hands then you pretty much look awesome.  

I try to stay away from "hamster hands", which is basically when you stand with your arms up and your wrists dangling limply.  I am so prone to hamster hands that I usually place a free hand on my body so that I do not look awkward.  So form and feeling- it's really important.  Two weeks out from competition I can say I that I am just starting to feel the dance instead of just going through the motions.

Pulling it All Together - 3 Weeks from Competition

I'm in the last few weeks of preparation for my first dance competition and I can finally feel the pieces falling into place.  Backing up just a bit- when I first decided to compete in July I did not even know 3 out of the 5 dance styles I would be performing.  So I had to learn the dance and the routine at the same time.  This was fairly daunting for me and luckily my instructor, Brian, talked me into following through!

The first few weeks were spent getting comfortable with Cha Cha and Night Club.  The last few weeks have been spent primarily on Waltz which hands down is the hardest dance I have learned to date.  For Waltz to look truly beautiful it must be danced with a rise and fall that coincides with very specific footwork.  My instructor, Brian, really helped me to understand this crescendo feeling by likening the Waltz to the movement of a pendulum.  The first step originates from a position where the body is low to the dance floor.  You must reach heel to toe, and then rise up to the second step, where the pressure is just on the toe, and then finish again low to the floor with a toe-heel foot movement.  These steps create the sweeping beauty that most of us know as the Waltz.  I finally started to at least get these concepts in my last lesson which was very exciting!!!

Me with my awesome instructor.

Time was also spent tweaking my West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, and Night Club.  In West Coast Swing, Night Club, Cha Cha I am still just working on keeping enough tension in my dance connection and improving my arm lines.  In Two-Step I am continuing to refine my turning skills specifically ensuring that I keep my arm in at a 90 degree angle so my turns are tight and clean.  

The best part of the lesson this week was that I finally felt like my dance routines were coming together.  What seemed like a mess of jumbled, dance moves to me a few weeks ago is actually cleaning up quite nicely.  I have 3 lessons left to continue to refine my dance technique (not that I am counting or anything).  My goal is to perform at my best on competition day and beat at least one person!

5 Tips to Improve Your Dancing

I am a month out from my first dance completion in July and as I progress through these last few week of preparation I’m getting a little reflective.  I now know all five of the routines I will be dancing next month.  However, I don’t feel comfortable performing all of them and here is where practice and repetition takes place.  I’m the type of person who always wants to know what kind of drills and practices I can complete solo so that I can improve quickly.  So here are a few tips I learned from my instructor, Brian, that I would like to share.

1)      Posture is important- maybe the most important (and easiest) thing you can work on.  Whether you are in a ballroom pose for Waltz or dancing a West Coast Swing, posture matters.  Standing up tall and leaning slightly back into the lead’s connection will just make you look like a better dancer even if your footwork stays the same!

2)      Allow your arms and legs to stretch out.  Beautiful leg and arm lines (just like posture) can make you seem like a better dancer.  When you hold a beautiful pose for even few seconds people forget that you may have just screwed up your footwork for a Nightclub turn.  Dancing does not always feel natural so you may have to stretch your legs and arms in an unusual manner but it is worth it for those photo ops.

3)      Don’t look at the floor! Seems obvious, yeah, but we all do it all the time.  Even people just walking around tend to look down more often then up.  Looking down makes you, the dancer, look awkward and unsettled.  Don’t do it!

4)      Lean into all connections.  There is no dance where it is not important to lean back into the lead’s connection.  Strong connections make you and your partner look more connected but it also just translates into better dancing since you are working with, instead of against, the lead.

5)      Project confidence and smile! As a serious person I know how hard this can be.  In fact, I will probably be projecting a false sense of confidence and happiness during all my routines.  But remember, your pictures will look better if you smile! (And people will probably think you know how to dance too.)

I plan to incorporate these five tips into my own dancing.  They are all little things but getting better at anything means progressing one tiny step at a time.  So this is a good place to start!

Dance Flashback - My Very First West Coast Swing Showcase Routine!

I Can’t Dance When I’m Moving!

I say a lot of dumb things on a regular basis.  I guess we all do but I always feel like I am particularly prone to blurting out the first thing that pops into my head.  This week at dance I did myself proud by uttering one of the most ridiculous catch phrases yet to pass through my brain. 

So this week was waltz week.  I have been drilling the waltz footwork for two weeks now.  Heel- toe, toe, toe-heel, heel-toe, toe, toe-heel.  And I have to say I have been feeling pretty good about it! Even though it is the most awkward way a person will ever travel down a dance floor, not to mention unnatural.

So here I am all set up for success. I come in to my lesson and Brian starts showing me the footwork as well as the proper way for me to hold my hands and body.  We go through the routine and he meticulously walks me through all the steps I need to take.  I’m definitely getting it, I am following along, I got this…. We get into waltz position and I start taking my first step of the routine when all of the sudden I forget the last 15 minutes of careful explanation.  In this moment of brain lapse I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, “I can’t do this when I’m moving!”  To which Brian bursts out laughing and I turn red knowing that this silly phrase makes absolutely no sense.  I think what I was trying to say was that I understood all the concepts being explained to me but actually executing it was hard. 

This is kind of the epitome of waltz for me.  I have always thought that it is the dance that looks the easiest when you watch someone else dancing it and is the hardest when you try to dance it yourself.  There are so many nuances about how to step, when to step, how to hold your head, and how to keep your posture.  Not to mention keeping the careful waltz cadence, remembering your footwork, and trying to stay in your “window” (that little place that the ladies body stays to the left of the lead’s frame).  In short, waltz may yet be the most intellectually stimulating dance I have learned so far.  And yes, it is hard to dance it when you are moving!

Dancing is about MOVING but it is also about WAITING

Last week’s lesson was primarily focused on all the dancing “don’ts”.  The theme of this week’s lesson was primarily around “waiting”.  I have the tendency to step too early in West Coast Swing instead of hanging back and waiting for the ,lead to pull me forward on step “1”.   This idea of waiting either to hold the beat or for the lead to initiate a move is a fairly common thread across all dances. 

In Cha Cha I have the waiting problem too.  The dance has a different rhythm from West Coast but still relies on waiting between beats.  Even though the dance is more staccato with short, quick steps, I tend to anticipate the next move and start stepping before the move is even initiated.  Anticipation is a common dance problem in the best of times but it is especially prevalent when learning a choreographed routine.  Practice does makes perfect but also builds expectation for a particular move.

Again, same holds true for Night Club and Waltz.  I have to remember to wait, step with my foot first, and then let my body follow so that I can lean into my partner’s arms.  This enables me to form the dance frame that looks so beautiful.  Without waiting it is difficult for me to fill all the space within the dance connection. Basically I am learning to dance in a way that looks pretty if I was to be photographed at any moment.  And this is the honest truth!

There is one more truth that I believe is important to share when you are preparing for your first competition. You WILL learn many new dances when preparing for a competition but you also WILL be learning the dances to a specific routine.  This is good but also crippling because without learning the dance socially you will only know certain choreographed moves.  You will also primarily be practicing with your instructor ( I would imagine) which means not only will you get used to the way he/she dances but you will also get accustomed to following a strong lead.  So I would encourage anyone who is planning to compete to yes, practice the routines, practice your footwork, but also practice dancing socially.  It will help you out in the long run, I promise!  Any time you want to practice or start learning you can check out the lessons/classes at Dance Louisville which is a great place with a friendly environment.

A Week of "DON'Ts"- Learning What Not to Do When Dancing

I have decided that I really enjoy writing a blog post the day after my dance lesson.  It is a great way to notate and remember all the helpful tips I learned the day before.  Many of the tips I this week were related to habits I should NOT do when dancing.  I will start by relaying those tips before discussing the new steps I learned this week.

In West Coast Swing, I should NOT be bending my wrist in a funky way every time somebody turns me. I actually do this constantly so it is clearly a bad habit I have developed.  I need to focus on keeping my wrist ramrod straight and in line with my arm so that I can have a better connection with my partner.

In Night Club, I should NOT be dancing on my toes OR looking at my toes. These are both these I do CONSTANTLY.  Night Club should be danced low to the floor with slightly bent legs.   I also should NOT dance Night Club completely upright.  Rather I need to be applying tension to my connection with my partner (much like in West Coast Swing) and leaning up and over the connection (and back into the man's hand).

In Cha Cha, I should NOT be fearful to open up my arm and side during the crossover breaks as the footwork looks more natural that way.  And in Two Step, I should NOT just turn blindly - I should turn while posting properly so that I can properly stabilize myself and prepare for my next move down the line of dance.

So this week is about me beating my bad habits and hopefully trying to avoid all my little idiosyncrasies. I will also be focusing on the basic pattern and footfall for Waltz.  Basically I am going to practice awkwardly walking around my house doing the waltz rise and fall footwork which is heel-toe, toe, toe-heal.

So this may be the week of DON'Ts for improving my dance technique but it is also the week that I start learning my fifth and final dance- Waltz!!! I am very excited about this.  If I can learn my routine for Waltz by the end of May that means that I have all of June to refine my dance technique for competition.  Hooray!

Finalizing the Night Club Routine (And Perfecting Cha Cha and Two Step)

This week I worked on finalizing my night club routine.  Does it look beautiful and am I holding my head and body correctly through the routine? Absolutely not! Can I remember the footwork? Mostly…. So learning the remainder of the Night Club footwork was not too tricky as Night Club came slightly easier to me than Cha Cha.  The hard part about Night Club is really just learning how to hold your head and your body.  The frame for Night Club is wide and spacious and similar to how you would hold your body for any ballroom dance.  The lady must allow her back to completely compress up and over into the man’s hand (almost as if leaning backwards) with every turn.  This looks gorgeous and feels….unpleasant.  For me, it definitely feels unnatural. 

The other hard part of Night Club is forcing myself to stay “down low” on my feet.  Night Club looks beautiful if you take long strides and bend your knees, flexing towards the floor.  It looks awkward if you dance how I do on my tippy toes.  So I will be working on improving all these things this week.  I also really struggled with some of the arm movements especially for the move called “Sliding Doors”.  In this move you must extend your arms as you move your feet and it is almost like trying to rub your tummy and scratch your head at the same time.  In any case, when I tried to focus on my arms I completely lost track of my feet and vice versa. Room for improvement? Hah-most definitely! J

This week, I also worked on fine tuning my Cha Cha routine..  I think I finally have the footwork down- hooray! Alas, I am moving my body very rigidly without fluid motions-in short I am not moving my hips enough- sigh…. So I will need to practice moving my hips on my own so I can train my body.  I also need to practice dancing with my toes pointed out instead of turned in.  This makes the lines for Cha Cha look much better and makes the dance more comfortable. 

In the last part of my lesson we ran through my Two Step routine which oddly felt the most comfortable! I still feel like I am turning a million miles an hour through the routine and at times getting dizzy but mostly I feel comfortable.  Now I just need to get to this comfort level with the other dances….

Improving my Cha Cha and Learning Some Nightclub!

In the past week I have focused on tightening up my Cha Cha moves and learning a little bit of the Night Club routine. So far Cha Cha is the hardest dance for me personally.  I am not sure what exactly makes it so tricky except that I know my feet always want to go in the wrong direction.  I constantly tend to start the chase move with the wrong foot or bend my knees too much or lose track of my steps entirely as I race to keep up with the music.

Last week I decided that I needed to learn the footwork for Cha Cha very slowly and on my own so that when I was dancing with a partner (and music) my feet would just naturally know where to go.  Muscle memory is pretty much the key component to dancing well.  Everyday, I set aside 10-15 minutes and reviewed my form and footwork for the basic Cha Cha step, the crossover break, the turns, and the chase move.  This practice helped me a lot and prepared me for my next lesson.  Instead of struggling to focus on footwork and technique and keeping time with the music I could just focus on the latter two issues.  Hooray! My plan for this week is to look just a little better when Cha Cha-ing socially.   I think I can get there. :)

This week I was also introduced to Night Club.  I had previously learned a few turns and basic steps from Brian but had not yet started to integrate these moves into a routine.  I decided, after learning Night Club, that I like it a lot! I naturally have long limbs and arms and am constantly taking steps that are too big in compact dances like West Coast Swing and Two Step.  Finally, a dance where I can stretch my legs and arms out and be praised for it!!!

Night Club is a version of waltz and is a slow, big dance which takes up a lot of space.  I  love it.  I really like that I can relate Night Club to Two Step, which is a dance I already know.  For example, the pivot turns in Night Club are giant versions of the tiny, tight pivots performed in Two Step.  The only thing that is awkward about Night Club is that you have to cock your head to the side a bit and settle into your left and right hip as you dance (kind of like waltz).  This is a very unnatural (and uncomfortable) head movement for almost anyone and will definitely take some getting used to.

After my struggles with Cha Cha though I am relieved that I may have some natural ability for any dance.  This week my focus is on tightening up my Two Step routine and doing drills for Night Club, Two Step and Cha Cha.  Practice, practice practice!

Cha Cha - Not As Simple As it Appears

And so I have arrived at Cha Cha.  A seemingly simple dance with the basic count of 1-2-Cha-Cha-Cha.  However, the tricky part of Cha Cha is that it is a fast dance with small movements and much room for error.  For starters, your toes are supposed to be pointed slightly out in most moves (with heels together).  My feet do not naturally go that way! My feet and toes, when standing naturally, point straight forward.  This is an attribute that I had always thought was positive since I have never had to worry about looking pigeon-toed.  But in Cha Cha toes have to point out so I am faced with the unpleasant task of trying to remember the foot work for this dance while contorting my feet in directions they do not want to go.  But in addition to the footwork there are also many unintuitive arm movements that must be learned. 

Remember those early days in middle school when we were just learning about kissing and everyone always asked , “But what do I do with my hands or my arms?! It’s so awkward!”  This is kind of how I feel about Cha Cha because I NEVER know what I am supposed to do with my arms or my hands until shown.  None of it feels natural and in fact I have to practice making the Cha Cha arm movements so they WILL in fact “look natural”.  I think I actually pulled a muscle trying to do the correct arm movement for the cross over breaks the first time. 

Okay, so I have to focus on pointing my toes out, remembering footwork, crazy arm movements (and arm lines) all while keeping time to the music! Oh and trying to remember the Cha Cha routine too!!  My only hope to conquer this dance is to practice the basic Cha Cha moves solo and focus on the little things like keeping my toes pointed, my heels together, and my hips doing…..what?  I think that is a question I will need to ask in my next lesson. J

Two Step and the Art of Turning....and Turning.....And Turning

In order to compete in July I will need to master 5 routines to 5 different dances including Waltz, Night Club, Two Step, West Coast Swing, and Cha Cha. Thankfully I already knew how to dance West Coast and Two Step when I decided to enter the competition.  On the first day of dance prep I met with my instructor, Brian, and we reviewed my plan of attack to make the July deadline.  He decided that in order to boost my self esteem and simultaneously tackle a dance we would start learning the routine for Two Step first.  

Thanks to having already attended workshops and group lessons in Two Step, this dance was not new to me.  Two Step is a fast, unrelenting dance and there is practically no recovery time.  Unlike in West Coast Swing where you can hold an anchor or count yourself back in, Two Step pounds on with no room for error.  I am the first one to admit that I can cheat in West Coast by skipping the anchor if I miss a beat or my partner is off music. ( I know Brian, I am only cheating myself!) But this is a blog of honesty if nothing else.  These shenanigans do not fly too well in Two Step.  If the lady or the man gets off beat the only way to fix the issue is typically to stop dancing completely and start again.  

The beat is only the first issue. The other part that is tricky is the constant turning.  Gentleman have to turn quite a bit in this dance but ladies you will really be turning! And you must turn with confidence and without hesitation! I am going to alter a wonderful quote from Julia Child (about flipping pancakes) and say that you "Must turn with the courage of your convictions!"  It is incredibly hard to focus on turning and new patterns in Two Step simultaneously.  Therefore I began conducting my own turning practice at home.  Just 10 minutes of turn practice a day keeps the line of dance in play!  One helpful turn technique is the chaine turn. The chaine turn involves a series of quick turns that travel down the line of dance.  It is something you can do on your own without a partner and it really really helps with Two Step.  Pivot turns (where you literally pivot in the opposite direction) are also helpful but the chaine turns really sealed the deal with me. After doing these turns for about a month on my own  my instructor really noticed a difference and so did I!!!

Learning the Two Step dance routine after learning the basic Two Step patterns like the weave, and couples turn was actually quite fun.  And bolstered by my new turning skills I was starting to feel like I might really be prepared to tackle this dance competition.   That was, until I tried to start learn Cha Cha....

The Day I Decided to Start Dancing

This blog is a little way for me to document my dance journey although I fear I am a bit behind as I started dancing at the beginning of 2014.  However, I will be tracking my preparation for my first dance competition so there will be plenty of "dancing firsts" to share.

So why did I decide to start dancing?  This answer is slightly more complex than "I just like to dance".  Actually, before I started doing ballroom I hated to dance formally.  I consider myself a fairly apt club dancer as in I like to go out and shake it on the dance floor to some techno tunes.  But I had never really taken to the idea of serious dancing until recently.  I started to dance because my posture is terrible and I wanted to improve it.  I started to dance because I am an introvert and in order to combat my natural aversion to socializing I constantly put myself in socially uncomfortable situations.  I started to dance because I don't like going to the gym but I also recognize that at 28 it may not be so easy to keep my slim form forever without exercise.  But mostly, I started to dance because it looked like so much fun and I LOVE having fun!

Once I decided to start dancing I signed up for a weekly pass at a Dance Louisville with the idea being that if I shelled out $30-$40 up front I would not be able to quit my new hobby.  I'm not going to lie to you- when I started I was not enamored with dance.  It was hard and there were a lot of steps to learn.  I found out I had to rotate in group class and talk and dance with lot of new people. Ack! I also found out later that I picked the hardest dance to learn first- West Coast Swing.  West Coast Swing has about 6 basic moves in comparison to the 1 that most other dances require.

In any case, the dancing required a steep learning curve. Thank goodness I had already paid my $30 up front or I would have quit right then and there.  So I struggled along with the West Coast Swing for about three months.  I counted the moves aloud and in my head as I tried to remember the foot work and patterns AND keep up with the music.  I shouted "Don't talk to me!" when my dance partner tried to hold a conversation with me while I was trying to remember the 8 count whip pattern.

But then, something magical happened.  I started really loving the dancing.  I began going to social dances and tons of classes.  I started dancing with new partners and learning new moves.  I stopped COUNTING! I could actually dance and tell my partner about my day while getting through a song. I was addicted!

Quick side bar here- you do not have to know how to dance to be a good dancer.  Many of the dancers at the studio look like naturals but they are not! They had to struggle along like I did in the beginning.  Yes, some people have a natural sense of rhythm and yes, some people are more flexible or able to move to music with ease.  But absolutely everyone can learn to dance and learn to love it.  I promise!

So now that you know how I got started in dance....the next few entries will track my progress to my first major dance competition- Indy Dance Explosion.  Thanks for joining me on my dance journey!