Pro Tips for Practice

Learning to ballroom dance can be overwhelming.

So many dances to learn, plus all the steps.

And we're trying to hold our arms right and worried about stepping on our partner's feet.

I think of learning to dance like triage.

Focus on the most important things first, and then once those are under control, we can worry about other things.

Because it's easy to get caught in the weeds and try to do everything perfectly and get overwhelmed.

Top Things To Practice As A Beginner

1️⃣ Your Basic Steps - Keep it simple. For example: forward, side, together. Don't worry so much about heels vs toes for now.

2️⃣ Your Dance Frame - Having a good dance frame is how we communicate with our partner. A droopy dance frame is like a weak cell signal - your message will get garbled, and it'll be frustrating trying to dance with a partner.

Yes it gets tiring to hold our arms up, but with practice, it gets easier and you almost won't have to think about it.

What Not To Worry About (Right Now)

If you can't hear the beat in the music.
- This is a skill that takes time. That's why teachers count during class. We don't expect beginners to hear the rhythm right away. It may take a while, but don't worry, you WILL get it, just keep coming to class and once day you'll magically be stepping to the beat.
If you can't tell what dance to do to which songs.
- This is an acquired skill. Although students often request to work on this in private lessons, I think this is best learned passively by "osmosis". Just by coming to class your brain registers the beats and song styles for each type of dance. And one day, you'll hear a song on the radio and say, "hey, that's a Cha Cha!"

Top Things To Practice When You're A Seasoned Dancer

1️⃣ Footwork

The footwork for each dance is designed so you travel smoothly across the floor. The dance police didn't dream up difficult footwork just to make things hard 😅

Dancing with incorrect footwork is like driving with flat tires. Sure you can drive a few miles slowly, but it's dangerous and unpleasant to try to cruise along the highway. As you progress in your dancing, proper footwork isn't a nice-to-have - it's essential.

So be willing to put in the work to learn your footwork and your dancing will have power and grace.

2️⃣ Technique

Good technique makes dancing look effortless and feel heavenly.

When we're getting started, we tend to chase after moves "show me how to do that!" and we want to learn a bunch of fancy steps, not realizing (or caring) that we have poor technique. But when we dance intricate moves without skill, it's not fun for the person you're dancing with - it's more likely to be annoying and uncomfortable. Ask any trained dancer if they prefer dancing with someone who knows lots of moves (but is a sloppy dancer) or someone who has great technique (even if they don't lots of steps), and they'll pick the technical dancer any day of the week.

So level up your technique, and you'll be in demand as a dance partner wherever you go!

3️⃣ Your Basics

Once you get to a certain level you will find yourself re-learning your basics - adding layers of nuance and technique. I know this can feel frustrating at first "I already know this step, and now you're asking me to do it a different way, and now I'm struggling." But dancing basics in an elevated way is what makes dancing feel so juicy and look so impressive.

So you'll never outgrow practicing your basics. And that's a beautiful thing!

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced dancer, a bit of practice goes a long way in building your confidence and enjoyment of ballroom dance 💗

Stay tuned and check out our other Blogs for more dance tips 💡