MR, I hate having to do this but you seem to be very sincere and devoted to your dancing. You don't deserve to be distracted by some pretentious nonsense.

Iluv2dance has given you some good advice. If you are able to do so then you would be wise to follow it.

You would be even wiser to ignore any advice from Polished. I'm serious.

You need to work with a coach on the matters that you have mentioned. As for your speed (with which I don't see a major problem), only practice will improve it.

BTW (again), for how many years have you been dancing Latin?

jj

MR, you will get a lot of different types of advice from different voices on this site. You should be able to decide on your own if any of it sticks, or if it goes off on a tangent or gets off track, or gets too deep. But I wouldn't ignore any of it, per se, only because there might be a sliver of advice, or the way something is worded, or a different look at something you hadn't thought about before. I know where jofj is coming from, and his advice and posts are always valuable. But he's also been slightly quick on the trigger to call out others he disagrees with. Much of the time, I agree. But a message board is what it is -- messages from a lot of different people. I read them all, ignore some, laugh at others, download and save others, keep notes and take in all of the information I deem valuable. By the way, you and your partner are quite good and you showed a real understanding of your dancing with your original post. The speed part, I learned over the years, comes with the practice joj spoke about. Think about it for a minute -- the better you come at turns, variations, sequences of steps and arm movements, it will be only natural to be able to do them faster. Good luck. I believe you will become even more excellent than you appear now.

dheun, that's a pretty even handed response and I appreciate your attitude.

Still, trying to mine worthwhile advice from one of Polished's rambling, incoherent posts would be like chopping down a 200-year old oak tree to make one toothpick.



jj

I have to agree with the latest posts here but one other thought occurs to me.

Did I notice that you also danced in Novice at that comp? All credit to you if you did but please do not rush to get out of pre-champ. Work with your coach to ensure you have a good solid base of technique and knowledge to build the future upon.

Good luck!

Hi MysticRiver,

Ok, I finally had a chance to look at your videos. You mentioned a "lack of groundedness", and then later an inability to move quickly enough to stay on time with the music. Interestingly, these problems share a common thread which I believe is your biggest obstacle at the moment.

Before you mentioned the feeling of not being able to "keep up", I was already planning to ask you if you had that issue. The reason: The one thing that really stands out as a problem in your dancing is a general look of urgency. It appears as though you are constantly anxious to get to the next thing, and so you tend not to finish what you are already doing. So that concern you have over being on time is robbing you of your ability to finish actions, most notably weight changes and hip settling. This in turn makes you less stable and connected, which, ironically, slows you down.

So while I can see places where you look like you're holding your weight a little high, it wouldn't have been my first, second, or even tenth observation about what's lacking. If it were, you'd already know the answer... dance lower! But ultimately, saying "keep your weight down" will be ineffective because those few "high" moments are only a symptom of a bigger problem. More than high, your actions tend to look stiff -- pushed or forced rather than released -- and the quicker the action, the stiffer and more forced you tend to get. So once again, this brings us back to your tendency to rush, and therefore not finish your actions.

One of the hardest concepts for newer dancers to truly grasp is the notion that you can buy yourself more time by spending more time. I can best illustrate this idea by using bowling as an analogy. If you are so anxious to get that ball down the lane that you push it out in front of your body, the ball will have no speed. If, on the other hand, you take a little extra time to cock the ball back and then swing it forward, that extra little bit of time you spent will be more than compensated for by the speed of the ball as it moves down the lane.

Every time you short-change the full settling action of a hip, the relaxing of weight *fully* on to a foot, or the completion of weight into a pull or push connection (the latter being extremely common with solo-trained dancers such as ballet and jazz dancers), the time you save is overtaken by the time you waste by moving less efficiently into the next action. So it pays to fill out and complete every single action, not just for the sake of that action, but for the sake of your speed into the next one (i.e. your ability to "keep up").

This is a concept that one can understand almost immediately intellectually -- you probably get it now -- but it can take an entire dance career to fully teach to your body. Don't be discouraged, it's a fun process. But do be aware of it and continue to pursue it, because the topic will keep coming up.

One practice method that helps this particular problem quite a bit is to dance to extremely slow music... even as slow as half tempo. Use the extra time you have to maximize and fill out every movement. Perhaps even dance entire rounds this way. Just make sure to also practice at full tempo, to restore balance to your practice time. If you do this for a couple of months, I think you'll notice considerable improvement in this area of your dancing.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

Excellent advice, Jonathan. I didn't want to speak out of turn because I don't instruct full-time for a living, but I saw the same things you mentioned. I just wasn't sure if there was a bit of a lack of musicality or some more resistance training needed (the slower music tempo will help with that) or something more specific to posture or timing.
The couple dances well, for sure, but their transition from move to move is an area to concentrate on.
She was wise to ask for some help on this site.

Moreover, Dheun and Jonathan were right in suspecting that an urgency to stay on time with the beat is one cause of me looking rushed, not finishing movements, and being ungrounded. Another major issue I have is with timing - I cannot hear the beat at times! I get so caught up in my dancing/routine that I too often get off time (several times in a dance). However, I didn't think this problem with timing would cause a cascade of effects, such as ungroundedness and inability to finish moves - so, thank you for pointing that out and I need, need, need to work on my timing!

MR, your comment about hearing the beat made me recall the practice of many Latin coaches of really jacking up the volume of the music for their students.

jj

THANK YOU everyone who has responded in efforts to help me realize the problems I am having with my dancing and their root causes. I have read each and everyone of your responses and really appreciate it. Now, it is just a matter of getting onto the practice floor and applying these very useful pieces of information.

Actually, tonight I practiced and it seemed to go OK. Ofcourse, no miracle fast results. Tonight, I was working on trying to loosen up my body while I danced and ofcourse, I went faster. But I need to learn how to loosen up my body without sacrificing cleanliness/preciseness of the dance. My partner is very fast by nature and I feel I may be slowing him down.

In essence, I feel I have currently reached my limit as far as speed - my muscles just dont want to send my body any faster. The reason why I say I feel like I've reached my limit is because through time and practice, I have been able to gradually increase my speed. But for some reason, and likely due to many reasons mentioned above by you all, I cannot gain additional speed. So again, I will take all of your advice, practice them, and see what works best for me.

One bit of information about me: I am generally a pretty nervous/anxious person by nature which leads me to believe that this causes my stiffness in my dancing. I believe I dont breath properly as well and even may hold my breath at times while dancing, causing my muscles to build up in lactic acid and get very tired/sore. Another bit is that I have scoliosis of the spine, which likely limits my flexibility throughout my body, especially my core. I am seeing a chiropractor and noticed to be slightly more flexible/loose, especially right after the visit.

On a side note, I need to work on developing a healthy dancer's diet for energy purposes and also work on my endurance. ENERGY, speed, strength, flexibility, and technical preciseness, all in combination - this is what I am striving for.

jofjonesboro- I have been dancing latin since August 2005 (about 3 years), however, I was only at the silver syllabus level just last summer. It was when I partered up with my current partner that I improved drastically since he was already at the pre-champ level.

MR, I took six months of lessons in tai chi to help me with both my breathing and flexibility. I can't recommend it highly enough. It will also help you to calm your jitters. I still practice it at least a couple of times a week.

As for your energy levels, I was fortunate enough to have a co-worker on my previous job who was also a licensed physical trainer. He taught me to use whey protein both before and (especially!) after a hard practice session. Don't forget to keep a good level of carbs in your diet, too.

I especially appreciate your observation in the last paragraph about improving once you had found a good partner. I have always maintained that amateurs develop much more quickly in amateur partnerships than in other circumstances.



jj