personal dance development

[dancingleaf]

Stolen off a thread on Bhuz....

a valuable bit of advice.  - something I should be thinking about....


There are a couple of exercises I use with my private students, to help them figure out what kind of dancer they want to be when they grow up.

1. You've just danced in a show. You're in a stall in the ladies room and a couple of women come in (dancers or GP), discussing your show. What 3 things would you like to hear them say?

2. If you had a magic dance wand that would grant you 3 dance wishes, what would they be?

The responses to both of these exercises usually clearly indicate where the student's focus should be.

Comments

[tangyapple.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. That's really interesting. ::thinking::

1. I guess I'd want the other women to say, "she has really great performance skills. Very expressive! And her sense of choreography is really good. Great use of music."

2. (1) To be able to do that dancer's backbend. (2) To be able to spin quicker and in more succession without getting dizzy and/or nauseated. And (3) To heal my body well enough to be able to dance without the chronic pain and without so many costume- & weather/heat-related limitations!

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

I just don't know what I want... if pressed I'd have to say...

1) I want to portray emotion, strength, power with my dance, to connect with the audience. (and did you see her costume =AWESOME+++!)

2)to find my personal path (be it Egyptian, Tribal or Cabaret), to always portray dance in a positive light, to share the empowerment I find with others.

(although I totally agree with your desire for spins. I just know that's not going to happen for me - so I limit the spins and am careful to balance right spins = lefts.)

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

2) confidence. I'd like more confidence.

also 1)I'd just like to know I made an impact at all.
Most of the time I try to be non-descript, invisible. (strange I know) but I don't want that for my dance I don't want to be completely forgotten, or remembered for the wrong thing. You know the name in the program where you say to your friend - which one was that again? oh her - I thought her ---- was going to fall off.

[tangyapple.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. How would you [we] be remembered as a dancer, if at all? I guess a big part of me would want people to realize that I haven't been dancing that long, got started very late in life, and haven't taken all that many classes, so whatever they see, it's just the best I can do under those circumstances... and being mostly self-taught. Oh, and having to work around some lifelong health problems as well!

Confidence: yeah, nobody can really give it to you. You just have to believe in yourself. But honestly, ask what possible reason(s) could you have to NOT be confident? And then work with whatever answers appear. I've done that, too: I'm too old (bullshit); I don't have a "belly dancer's" body (hardly matters); I don't have enough time to devote in order to really become good at it (unfortunately, for me this might be true), etc. But then I figure, so what. Just do it anyway. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks; it rarely ever matters. We dance for ourselves, even when we're in front of an audience! They can either join us on the journey or not and we can't control whether they will or what they'll think, so the heck with it. ;) Also, I've found that just doing it and practicing and committing to it over the years has increased my skills and my confidence along with it. :)

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

:) yeah but if I could gain confidence through a magic wand...

I do pretty well with it - I just start doubting myself and that's not productive...

[tangyapple.livejournal.com]

No, doubting yourself is NOT productive! Unless you mean you're just doing your own form of constructive criticism....