
Progression in couple dance
DANsE Blog

How does it work with dance progression? Sometimes we feel that despite the fact that we are learning and practicing more, our dancing is getting worse. It is a normal process…
When we decide to attend any dance class, the intention can be different at the beginning. Some people want to learn to dance, some people have a passion for a specific dance, some people just want to socialize. After some time, the intention may change (or not), or we may find that this is not what we are looking for and try something else.
However, if we decide to continue and find that we want to improve and move forward, over time we will encounter various obstacles that we will have to overcome in our progress. Just like any other activity in life in which we want to improve, dance has its "rules" that must be followed in order for progress to occur.
Let's say that in the first or second course we learn the basic principles, body position, the basics of weight transfer and a few steps. Here we need to think about what it means to LEARN?
The teacher will provide us with information, which he will explain as best he can. We will accept the information and understand it in our own way. We will try the information and be satisfied that it has somehow started to work (this happens often). Or the second model is that we will start to have additional questions because something is not working for us. During the lesson, we will fine-tune it with the teacher and the dance will start to work better for us. Let's say that we are in the phase of understanding the information.
And here comes the third and very important step. I got the information, I understood it and now I need to practice it. This is the most important phase that we often skip. 🙂 After all, it basically works without it, so let's move on.
A more advanced course will come, where there will be more interesting steps, with which we will definitely impress those around us. Hooray… At first, we may even have the feeling that it is still easy and everything works. But in reality, it may not be comfortable dancing for both of us in a couple. Men often start to use a lot of force at this point to “assert” what they want and literally push their partner into the figure they want to dance. Women hang on to their partner and let him take them to whatever he wants, or they already know what will come next and finish it by themselves, thus creating chaos. Of course, there can be more of these model situations
This is exactly the turning point when we have to decide HOW we will continue. Whether this is enough for us and we will try to dance at this level for the rest of our lives (it is likely that dancing with us will be uncomfortable and some people may start to reject it over time), or we will decide that we want to move our dancing further.
Back to basic
We start asking ourselves why the dance doesn't work for me in a way that makes it enjoyable and what I can do to make it better. The answer is simple.
My body is not ready for it. The basic step is not about the step. It is about the character of the dance, the technique of execution and the principles on which the dance is based. Thanks to the correct execution, it can be simple. All the more complex figures and combinations are based on the basic step. And even if we initially understood how it works, it does not mean that our body can dance it. That is why we need to train it.
At first, our progress was rapid. On the progress graph, it looked something like this.
But here we have reached our peak in the current readiness of our body. In order to move it further, we need to start processing and training the information that we have previously received and understood. Our body will not immediately start working according to our ideas, because it needs time for the information to get into muscle memory. We often have a lot of habits or bad habits from life or other dances that we need to eliminate or review. Alternatively, teach the body how to switch.
There comes a period of "deterioration" and we experience frustration from this. In fact, it is a period of improvement. We just need to give ourselves time to reorganize our body. Our graph goes as follows.
Our body slowly works itself out to a new level, it starts to respond to the movements we train, suddenly there comes a turning point and the so-called AHA moment.
Oh my god, is this how it's supposed to be? Boom. Our graph takes an "unexpected" turn.
Our body is now ready for more complex things and we can move on. Now the progress will be a bit slower, but more conscious.
Until this cycle repeats again. 😀
The basic step and the movement associated with it can really be perfected all the time. There is always something to work on and we can always return to it.
- If our basic body position is not working, we stagnate.
- If we are unable to be aware of weight transfer, we stagnate.
- If the basic frame for leading and following is not working, we stagnate.
- If our basic technique doesn't work, we stagnate.
Our body needs to be prepared for more complex things if we want to dance them comfortably and safely. We can only prepare it for this through training and systematic repetition, and by perfecting the foundation.
Do you think it's different in other activities in life??? 🙂