How Much Time Do You Devote To Your Dancing?
So this article may be a bit of a copout since I didn't really come up with it. But ah well, I think it provides interesting information.

I recently have been trading emails with a friend of mine on how people improve their dancing, especially when they feel stale or in a rut. In one of the emails he asked me the following questions:

I was just wondering on average how much time you devote to dancing. In particular:
1) How much do you practice?
2) Do you tape yourselves during practice?
3) Do you review or watch many dance videos?
4) Are there any other activities you do regularly to help with your dancing?


Good questions. I'm sure every dancer is different at every level. All advanced dancers probably have different regimens. Here's mine:

1) How much do you practice?

People may be surprised at how little we practice. That is, if by "practice" we mean renting a studio to specifically go there and practice. Through our first year of competition we rented studio time to practice aerials. All other "practice" was on the social dance floor and from that we really got in a lot of "practice", dancing together and with many other people.

Then we started renting studio time to practice choreographed routines. And that has pretty much been it - routines and aerials. When we're at the studio and are taking a rest break, we will put music on and social dance. And when we are at the studio teaching classes, we may put some music on after class and do some social dancing. But the primary reason for studio time is to practice the aerials and choreography. If we weren't doing aerials or choreography, we probably wouldn't rent any studio time for practice.

After talking to a few other advanced dancers about this, it seems to be the same among quite a few advanced dancers that a lot of the practice really comes on the social dance floor.

I suppose the point most of the dancing is learned similar to how one would learn a foreign language: You can take classes in a foreign language and make a point to go to a "studio" to "practice" with your partner or what have you. But if you put yourself in the environment where everyone does it, you can "practice" in the real world setting and acclimate much faster.

2) Do you tape yourselves during practice?

YES YES YES! Taping yourself is invaluable. Even those times when I am afraid to tape because I know that I'll look terrible, we still tape. And I have to admit that Sheri is very good at this. She's ready to tape no matter how bad we are feeling or how tired we are. Thank goodness for Sheri being so brave.

When you tape yourself, you can watch and write down things you like about your dancing (your strengths) and things you don't like (your weaknesses). How else are you going to know if you don't watch yourself?

Humorously enough, the things you think look horrible may end up looking really good. Unfortunately vice-versa is true too.

3) Do you review or watch many dance videos?

YES! Similar to watching videos of yourself, you want to watch videos of others. You can watch a video and put down a list of things you like about that dancer and then work on incorporating that into your own dancing. The hardest part is probably figuring out what to watch for. But simply noticing what looks good and then figuring out why it looks good goes a long way.

The first kinds of clips would be obvious and those are the movie clips. My two favorite are the Groovie Movie and Hellzapoppin.

We also like to watch non-swing dancing clips. For example the "Moses Supposes" clip with Gene Kelly and Donald O' Connor (which we have on our Video Clips Page) is a great example. Why does it look so good? And not just the obvious reason which is the great tap footwork. Notice that the two of them are dancing together and thus it has a lot of elements of a partner dance. Figure out what you like about the clip and you have things you can apply to your own partner dancing as well.

Finally we like to watch competition videos. All dancers really lay it on the line in a competition. All my legitimate jaw-dropping "HOLY ****" moments of watching dancing has always been during a contest.

4) Are there any other activities you do regularly to help with your dancing?

I used to be an avid runner and weightlifter. Because of shoulder problems I've cut down on lifting for now and due to time constraints I also cut back on running. I would recommend both because having a strong body makes dancing easier (as you'd expect). Also having a good cardiovascular capacity makes dancing easier (as you'd expect). Anyhow below is my list

** tap classes (loosen up your feet)
** ballet classes (good for flexibility and balance)
** yoga (good for flexibility)
** stretching (good for flexibility)
** weights (good for strength)
** running (good for cardio AND good for strengthening the muscles around the knees! just don't over do it!)
** hip hop classes (body movement and separation)
** listening to music and visualizing. This is how I choreograph our routines for us. I do the primary choreography by listening to a song over and over and over again (usually while I'm driving) .. I listen many times over, and I just visualize what Sheri and I would do to a certain part of the song. After I have 50 to 80 percent of it done Sheri and I collaborate on the rest. I actually started this practice a LONG time ago and when I started doing this it was not for choreography. When I first started dancing I'd listen to the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cd over and over again, imagining myself dancing to that song and various moves I'd do at certain parts of the song. I think what this does is really get you in tune to listening to music and the more you do it, the easier it will be for you to listen to music and recognize progressions when you dance.

Anyway, just some insight into me and Sheri and our dancing. I hope this article can help you with your dancing as well.