Have you been in this situation where you have watched tons of videos of your favorite dancers on YouTube, but when you film yourself dancing and watch it back, you find that you look NOTHING like them? It’s almost like you’re not even dancing the same dance. I wanted to talk about a few reasons why that could be the case. However I will not be stating the obvious here. Of course you need to learn the steps and improve your technique. What I want to talk about are things that go beyond that, stuff you might not have thought about yet.
1# You Don’t Have a Good Posture
You simply can’t get around it. Professional dancers have a good posture and it’s a part of why they look nice dancing. If you’re slouching there is no way you’ll ever look good on the dancefloor. Sometimes it’s not even a matter of forgetting about the posture – if you walk around like that all the time then your back and core muscles might be too weak to hold you up straight and you need to train them. Which brings me to the next point.
2# You Are Not Fit
A fit body is much better to look at, no matter what your height, weight or body type is. Professional dancers most definitely go to the gym – taking dance classes only is often not enough. No need to overdo it and start bodybuilding or dieting, simply get your muscles toned. If you don’t like going to the gym, you can find some full body workouts on Youtube to follow along at home. I booked one consultation from a personal trainer and now do workouts in my living room with some simple rubber bands.
3# You Are Not Dancing With Emotions
Advanced dancers have already surpassed the stage where they need to be thinking about how to execute moves, their body already knows the technique. Now they can start adding emotions. Fun, drama, swag, passion – whatever the music is calling for. Even if your technique is perfect, without emotions there will always be something missing from your dance.
4# You Are Not Wearing Clothes That Suit You
You’d be surprised how much clothes help you look good when dancing. The professional demos that you see are often recorded at events where they’re teaching – obviously they’re gonna dress up. It doesn’t mean that you need to wear the exact same clothes as the artists, since you might not have the same body type, but find something that works for you and makes you feel confident. When you watch back a video of yourself dancing, you’ll be able to appreciate it more.
These were my thoughts on why you might not be so hyped to see a recording of yourself dancing and what you can do about it. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to add!
Awesome and useful article. So many things we can improve ourselves to make us look more elegant on the dance floor. Indeed a lot comes from the confidence that comes after you have mastered the your range of moves. As a leader it is much more difficult to surpass that “think about the moves” phase, but with time it gets better and it’s possible to match the emotions and the musicality. As a follower i’d think it would be easier to think about the those details, however, a follower is also focused on following. Still, followers should give more importance to for example, where they have their hands/arms when leader is not holding them. But again, it all comes to gaining confidence with time
Keep on the awesome work Jette 🙂
“where they have their hands/arms when leader is not holding them” – ooh, that’s a good one! Thank you! 🙂