5 Ways to Improve as a Social Dancer

3.) Video

Video cameras used to be very expensive items. If you had one it’s because you also happened to own a movie studio. Over time they got cheaper & smaller (the cameras, not the movie studios). Nowadays it’s pretty much the standard for everyone to have at least one video camera in his pocket at all times. This camera also takes pictures, allows him to update his twitter accounts, like fan pages, and occasionally make phone calls.  The prevalence of video cameras means that people spend more time taking pictures and updating the status of their babies than they actually do playing with the baby. You would think that everyone would have a video timeline of their dancing from their first steps all the way to their latest performance.  But that’s not the case.

When giving private lessons, one of the first things I ask clients is “Have you ever watched yourself dance?”

Most have not. They may have some videos of themselves doing the sequence from class, or after a workshop. But very few have gotten to see themselves social dance. You can’t blame them, there is a certain stigma attached to being recorded in public. It makes people look at you. It puts you in the spotlight, and gives people the impression that you are about to do something spectacular, when you aren’t doing anything but the same dancing you were doing the night before. Then they get disappointed and then stop looking at you.  You have failed them. Who do you think you are for bringing that camera into the club and calling all that attention to yourself? OK, now that we’ve gotten over that you can go back to what your goal is; which is improve your social dancing.

You have to record yourself. Find someone that has a similar goal and you guys both share the task of recording each other social dancing. It doesn’t have to be all night.  You need to tape at least 3 dances, with different people. Get permission from the people you dance with, in case they don’t want to be recorded. The first dance you will most likely be very self-conscious about, and feel like an idiot. That feeling goes down some with the second dance. By the 3^rd dance you shouldn’t even be thinking about it.  Now the purpose of recording yourself isn’t to be more comfortable in front of the camera, though that’s a positive side effect. You have to take the next step and watch the video.

I can guarantee you that the first time that you watch yourself dance you will feel somewhat nauseated. You will look like the people you always laughed at internally (if you’re polite). You will wonder why anyone ever danced with you. You will see mistakes that you only thought other people made. You will see how moves look, and how your partner really feels. You will be your hardest critic.  You may decide to join a gym.  But you will also find things that you can correct. There’s no inspiration like the desire to look at least as good as you thought you looked.

I had a student who had a specific issue that was driving me nuts. Every time that he turned his partner, he would cock his head to the left. I mentioned it to him in passing, though not making it the focus of the private lesson.  As he continued to do it, I addressed it directly, and he promised to work on it. As I noticed him social dancing, and continuing to do it. I finally recorded him on the sly, and in the next lesson I showed him the video. The first thing he said was:

“Oh man, what’s wrong with my head?! Do I do that all the time?”

After that he was much more particular about correcting this problem.  He became proactive, asking me if he was still cocking his head, and internalized the proper posture that he needed to maintain, because he had seen how he looked and he wanted to improve. While looking good doesn’t necessarily mean that you are dancing well, aligning your self perception with your actual appearance helps to ensure that you are taking both your mind and body in the same direction. Which takes us to our next tip…