Hi All,
It's a fallacy to think because a dancer has made the top six or twelve that he or she could analyse their performance to the extent that they could put it into a text form. In these posts I often read a name, either a past or present champion, who's performance is used as an example to a particular question. If you lived in the part of the world where these names are often seen giving lectures or lessons you would see that, in most cases, it's the same work has their previous lecture. If there is a secret to a successful dancer I can assure you it's not because they have a secret technique, it's because they found the time to practise and also found a coach who taught them the basic principals that can be found in any of today's technique books. When I say practice, I don't mean an hour every three nights a week I'm talking about four to six hours a night at least five nights a week. You must live and sleep dance, you don't switch off when you leave the floor. With this amount of practice it's not just about dancing your routines, it's about being able to break your routine into four or eight bars; being able to use different parts of the routine as a follow; being able to see which figure can be used, or not, at a corner. Scatter chairs around the floor and dance around them. I always watch very closely when dancers come together. I'm waiting for the time when they raise their arms and dance, it's then and only then, that I know I'm going to see an almost natural performance. It's this type of performance that will one day make them champions When they come together and start to try and get the hold right; trying for a better shape, etcetera, I sometimes feel I should say to them, save you fee and come back when you can do these basic preparations without thinking. It was only recently that working as a guest teacher in a studio the principal told me he had booked a Blackpool dancer to do a teach-in. When he mentioned the fee he was told he could have had the Blackpool dancer's coach for almost half that!

I completely agree! A dancer must be very dedicated and practice 4-6 hours a day 5 times a week, and when not dancing, do other exercises that contribute to their dancing. Whether its cross-training, stregnthening arches, or simply practicing your waltz pendulum, it all helps. It amazes me to see couples that have two practice sessions a week and hope to do well. You have to dance so often that, like you said, to make the routine extremely natural. And dancing all the time isn't just to prepare oneself physically, but mentally as well to always be in the right mindset, calm as not to be nervous, but ready at any time to explode on the floor. That is what separates the champions from the rest!

Just making the 6 or 12 may not prove all that much beyond extreme determination. But if you look at the people who actually win, there often are technical details that they do differently than the others (often they come closer to the description in technique books than other dancers today). These are things they will tell you if you ask, and they are very much worth learning.