Dancers Guide to Quarantine.  

With so many cancelled dances and events, how can you keep feeding your passion for dance? Here are five helpful tips that I recommend when life gets in the way of your love for dance. 

* Crank up your favorite tunes and dance like no one is watching. You know those songs you love that are never Deejayed? Now is the perfect time to get into that playlist and just move. So much of dance is about nourishing your passion for life. Dance to music that makes you feel alive even if it isn’t ‘technically’ correct. Have Fun!!!

* If you can’t do it by yourself you can’t do it with a partner. Drill, drill, drill. Every instructor you have taken a lesson from has probably given you solo drills/shines/solo choreography, to help you improve your dance. The reason this teaching device is so important is that it trains your body to move differently without the complications of dancing with another person. To really test yourself practice slowly and work your way up to mastering your drills at a faster tempo. 

* Expand your movement capabilities. Something that is underrated within partner dancing is how important our mobility, balance, and strength are. Try out different exercises to improve in these areas. Practice standing on one foot, hit some planks, or do some yoga. Anything that expands the boundaries of of your movement will greatly improve your dance. 

* Get Inspired. Inspiration can be found in so many different places and is such a fundamentally important part of building energy to work hard and push your dancing. Search YouTube for the following key words to get some great results: (dance style)+(social/routine/competition/workshop/lesson)+(year/dancer name). I.E. Kizomba social 2019. This resulted in a great selection of dances including: https://youtu.be/ZPIhAcmYjzk. Be careful though, this can leave you watching video, after video, after video. 

* Practice with a friend. So much of why our studio and other dances have halted classes is about understanding how to move forward while managing the risk of spreading the virus. Practicing one on one allows you to greatly limit exposure. In addition to that it’s fun! It also allows you to build a relationship where your partner knows what you’re working on and allows you to both invest in helping each other improve. These relationships can last a lifetime and are central to every high level dancers’ growth. Understand that who you practice with is about compatibility over ability level. You both will greatly improve if you have shared goals, good communication, and friendship.  

I look forward to seeing you all back on a dance floor ASAP but in the mean time enjoy the tips and stay safe.

Much Love,

Piper