How to loosen up on the Dance Floor
Questtion By User kmsaway
Hello everyone,
I’m a guy who has been doing this for 8 months or so. I just performed a choreography a few weeks ago, and I see myself in the video, and I look like I feel very uncomfortable. I don’t feel uncomfortable, I just look it. I think I have resting bitch face too, but if I force a smile, it doesn’t look genuine.
This concerns me because dance is a performance, not just from how well I have the moves memorized or how good I dance at socials, but I have to look into it. (Like Marco and Sara. I love how Marco looks like he’s truly enjoying it.)
Does anyone else have this problem? Any tips? Thank you everyone.
Answers
User tvgtvg
1–8 months is not much 2-if you want to perform and look good you have to take lessons and concentrate on practising that, performance is acting, it has little to do with dancing , only after years and with talent, you can do a performance without consciously having to act ( my experience) 3-as a very experienced dancer who does not look very good while dancing: making a lady feel good and look good is in my opinion much more satisfying, i do not perform because i do not like fixed choreos. If i am asked to show something i‘ll do a free improvisation on a good piece of music. In my experience much more fun can be had if you get good at social dancing instead of performing. I realize that is not what you asked 4-so i do not at all agree with „ dance is a performance“ : it is if you want, but much more fun can be had if you don‘t see it that eay, but see it as a two person connected interpretation of music.
Just my viewson dancing, yours are just as valid, whatever they are.
User LordofthePandas
A few things… take deep breath and let your partner feel your body tense and relax with it…. don’t start you dances fast, take your time to start. Sometimes I do side steps for 30 seconds…. keep you steps small… close your eyes :-).
User RocktheRedDC
I know what you are saying. In my opinion even you know 1000 advanced moves, if you don’t look good when you are dancing, that’s not a good dancer.
After I got comfortable with moves…and that required a lot of practice, I fixed the why I look when dancing.
Take classes of man styling, practice in front of mirrors, record your dance and then improve.
The key is to have a lot of confidence in moves and enjoy what you are doing. Smile, dress nice, show passion when you dance.
When I look at videos and some artists I always appreciate the way they look when dance.
If you like Marco, that’s fine look carefully and try to learn from him. I personally think he looks too strong.
I like Axel and Maria form Argentina, Kike and Nahir from Spain\Argentina.
Good luck.
User Varitt
Hey mate,
To echo what most have already said, practice enough until it becomes second nature and you can just play with the beats and enjoy yourself. That’s all there is to it, really.
If you look uncomfortable it’s probably because you are too concentrated (which is understandable in a show, trying not to screw up and keeping up with the rest of the guys). But in socials, just having fun and dancing a lot is the best way to “loosen up”.
Fooling around, trying stuff that might or might not work and just laughing when it doesnt (with girls you already know), is a great way for me to loosen up.
Happy dancing mate :)
User dhit
First step at looking good while dancing with a partner is looking good while dancing by yourself
Most about looking good while dancing is having a great posture, straight back, not looking down and smile. If you want to improve at looking good, I’d suggest you to buy a big mirror and practice the basic step by yourself everyday. Record yourself so you can see your mistakes. After some months you will see improvement. It’s all about practicing enough.
I don’t really know anyone who looks great doing basic steps by himself and then looks bad while dancing with a partner.
User enetheru
because dance is a performance
:|, not all dance is performance. But lets assume you are talking explicitly about performance, and honestly I also struggle because I have to fight my social dancing reflexes. My best performances is when I know the routine so well that I can start to play within the structure, add some nuance and expression ontop of the base that is the choreography. Just be gentle with yourself, I’m coming up on seven years of dancing and performance is still hard to do because of how much concentration it demands.
Only tip i have is to know the choreography so well it becomes the reflex, then you can choose to go all out and make it amazing.
oh and go do some ‘no lights no lycra’ and give it everything you have so that you know what that feels like, then try to do the same whilst performing.
User phoenixbouncing
Only tip i have is to know the choreography so well it becomes the reflex,
I’m still really new, so this comes with a grain of salt, but I feel the same is true for socials.
Once you know the base passes you want to place, you can start filling out with style etc and feel more at ease. The hard part (for leads at least) is knowing the passes well enough that you don’t really have to think about them.
User enetheru
Alcohol helps to stop you thinking about them.. haha. my best dancing is at about 2.5 beers in.
I agree with you though, turning the knowledge into reflex through repetition is the key to making it easy. Infact I’m pretty sure there are youtube video’s dedicated to phases of knowledge about this.
