PULAU TIKUS - LINE DANCE: August 2015

10 Ways to Improve your Line Dancing

Not everyone is a born dancer. Even the most professional dancer goes for classes to enhance his/her skills and techniques. Over the years, I’ve observed and by experience found that the following may help to improve your Line Dancing skills.

1. Run through the steps – After learning a new dance in class, run through the steps again when you get home to reinforce them. Refer to the step sheet and make notes on it. If it’s impossible for you to dance out the steps physically, at least visualize through all the counts. This can be done when you get into bed, and instead of counting sheep's to sleep, visualize the new dance of the day (for the entire week!).

2. Practise makes Perfect – Not every one has the free time/means to attend dance classes daily. If you attend classes only once a week, chances are the steps would be forgotten in next class! 1 week = 7 days = 168 hours = … Many things happen in a week- jobs, kids, excitement, bad news etc for our brain to deal with, and if you don’t practise at least once, chances are you’ve forgotten 80% of the steps. Thus, the week’s practice is essential to remember the steps better. Spend at least 10-15 minutes a day (maybe when you wake up in the morning, do some light exercises!) and practice the steps of your dance.

3. Listen to the Music – We dance to music. Every step should be interpreted according to the type of music. Get used to the beats and rhythm of a music by listening to them more often. Play it while you cook or while driving. The more you listen, the more you can anticipate and remember the phrasings, tags and restarts of the dances. Get into the music, feel it and you’ll find that you are able to dance better! Dance with your soul touched by music!

4. Attend Dance Parties – A good form of motivation for you to remember your dances and steps are going for dance parties. There are plenty of parties to choose from every weekend with a variety selection of dances. Many also find that dancing in a crowd gives more “oomph” and are able to dance better. It’s also a good way to socialize with dancers from other groups/classes. Don’t forget to observe and pick up some styles/techniques as danced by the better dancers!

5. Watch the Tube – Internet and technology are so advanced nowadays, dancers today often wonder how dances are promoted and spread in the yesteryear's! There are numerous line dance videos published on the Internet, be it from the more popular YouTube or other video sites. Watching the videos can help you to interpret, assimilate and remember your steps better. Many groups of dancers have unpainstakingly spent lots of time and energy publishing dance videos for the benefit of other dancers. These videos are of great help (and some for extra styling) and especially when the choreographer’s videos are not available.

6. Get on the Tube – At least offline! Take videos of yourself dancing and later give constructive comments when watching it. Watching yourself dance and giving constructive comments is a good post mortem to improve your dancing skills/style. You might notice “Oh, my arms are so stiff!” or “My arms swing around so much” or “My turning is not sharp!” or “I look so fierce, should smile more!” etc… realising your shortcomings is the first step for you to improve exactly that! Alternatively, dance in a room of 4 walled mirrors!

7. Put Up a Performance – I’m sure you want to put up a good show. Putting up a performance will motivate you to practice harder besides improving your techniques and styling. It also enables you to think creatively to make the performance dance looks more interesting.

8. Take an Exam – Who says there are no exams in Line Dancing? There are numerous bodies that offer exams of different levels to dancers who wish to upgrade and certify themselves. Some popular ones are ISTD and UKA. Not only you have a professional guiding you for the exam, you will find that your techniques and confidence will increase too!

9. Join a Competition – An excellent way to improve yourself is by competing. Olympic and World records are broken when top athletes compete with one another and push themselves harder and beyond their usual fare. Likewise, when you take part in a competition, the competitive pressure will push you further and better. Dancing alongside excellent and top dancers will also give you a tremendous experience. Winning them will give you more confidence and go for more and higher levels of competition.

10. Pick Up other Dance Genres – Envious of dancers who are graceful as a swan, can wiggle their butt/shimmy effortlessly, or twist the Cuban hips sexily or do multiple turns without getting dizzy? These techniques can be further picked up and enhanced by joining the special classes such as ballet, belly dancing, hip hop, Latin, jazz etc. Then incorporate them into your line dance! (Don’t you get stuck there and forgot to return to line dance!!)

THIS IS BY NO MEANS THE 10 COMMANDMENTS. BUT DO TRY THEM OUT AND WISH YOU THE BEST IN IMPROVING YOUR LINE DANCING!