I believe in practicing solo is a good way to improve dancing skills. For example, I practice Waltz by myself around the floor spinning in one direction for a while then change direction then change back. I help me to overcome the dizziness.
My wife has trouble with practicing solo. I wish I can have an instructor that encourage her to do so.
She can do a lot of things with me but leaving alone, she cannot performing many routines by herself. She knows it but keep saying why dance solo ?

There is some benefit in practising solo, but it can never replace dancing with a partner because what you do as an individual will be modified when you have to accommodate your partner's movements. It's much easier to dance solo (that's my experience as a male, anyway) - i don't have to worry about how my partner will cope with my turns or subtle hesitations and hovers which i can put in anywhere at any time without having to bother to lead my partner...and so it goes on.
But kman has made a very good point - practising solo to sort out a particular point of technique IS a good idea (ahd what kman has said about overcoming dizziness is very true - i do the very same myself!! and it works).
Learning new steps - sorting out subtle rhythms - or just for the pure pleasures of moving and expressing your own feelings to music - these are all good reasons for dancing solo.
My experience also is that women are much less inclined to dance solo. Why is this? Is it the body position, which is hard to sustain without the partner?

No Phil,
It has nothing to do with the body movement....

It has to do with the follow concept. The lady knows the routine, or the next step that is coming up... Yet, she must wait until that exact moment that the man has lead the step. If she jumps the gun, she then has decided the step, and really limits the leader.

It is quite hard for the lady, who knows the next step, and yet to wait for the lead, lest the step change.

Sometimes when we practice by ourselves, we loose the skill and art of staying on the foot and really waiting for the lead....Thus our tendency not to practice solo...

Janet

Amen. I am a woman who practices alone. However, I never wish to get comfortable alone because I already "backlead" too much.
For a woman dancing alone is great for getting steps down, eg. toe heal, rise fall, CBM, foot patterns. But then my partner leads it differently than I imagined it and the line of my spine over my foot must be adjusted for poise and balance. So I try not to practice "flow" or too many consecutive steps alone unless I am reviewing a routine. In other words, I believe women practise steps or short combinations alone but not a dance lest we become too comfortable with our own lead.

Your question is valid and all the responses are as valid. However, there is no substitue for a real person on the other end of the shadow lead. It all boils down to your frame and how the follow/leader responds to it.For the leader ,frame will tell the follow when,where,how,etc to respond.For the follow, frame will erase any doubt as to the next course of non verbal response.

If your solo practice is Modern, here is the main problem. As you walk forewards or backwards you are most likely brushing your feet as one passes the other. In the 30's this would have been correct because the parners were vey square on to each other. Now with the poise very much to the mans right side you are on four seperate tracks. You should have a space between your foot as thick as your partners thigh.As i am trying to point out, i doubt in solo practice if you are moving up or down the floor, in the the Foxtrot for instance,that you have a gap about the thickness of a bag cement in some cases between your feet.
The other problem is you don't have to keep centred when dancing solo. An excelent idea is to hold a large handbag on your right hip and keep it there. Guys i would'nt recomend a handbag.

This is incorrect. You still brush your feet in modern today, as we never take steps that are purely forward or backward - there is always rotation of at least the hips involved, so feet that may be on seperate tracks at the extreme of stride still brush together in the middle.

I think it is alright to practice by yourself. I do it too. I dont have a partner anymore but i still dance around the floor. I don't want my skills to go down because I don't have a partner. In fact my teacher says it is good to practice by yourself too. So I think it is ok.

Yes, though bad habits can develop without the presence of another body to indicate the problem.

For example, swinging the foot in front of the body, rather than moving the body with the foot underneath. Alone, dancing between your feet feels wonderfully supported and stable, but you couldn't do it with a partner there - unless you artificially seperated your leg tracks enough to interlace legs with them. With proper body action, your leg's won't interfere with the partners even if they brush together, because your legs won't extend in front of you into their space.

If you want to continuously knee cap each other stand on two tracks and do those pitiful little srides. Now stand on four tracks take one step and get your front foot within three inches of your partner back foot. Her front foot should be within three inches of your rear foot and a little to the side and on her own track. But then dont believe me. Have a look at the best and see for yourself, and if you can do this and brush your feet your a better man than i am Gunga Din