So you want to know how to become a better dancer?
This is an article about a quality that I believe people need to have in order to improve and become a better dancer. What is it? In two words, “strong ambition!” When I say strong ambition I mean a willingness to become the best you can be as fast as possible.
It is a burning desire so strong that it would not let anything stop you from becoming the best leader, follower, spinner or whatever your goal is in dancing. I am talking about an urge that would keep you up at night knowing that next day you are going to dance at a party and you JUST HAVE TO DELIVER THE GOODS ON THE DANCE FLOOR! A feeling of I have to have to have to NAIL what I had practiced all these weeks.
Without that strong ambitious feeling, your progress will be very slow and minimal. You will not be motivated enough to put in the practice and therefore your dancing will suffer. Let me share a little personal story with you. When I just started dancing, at the age of 12, I used to come home from my dance lessons and go straight down to the basement to practice all by myself. Day after day, I would video tape myself dancing and then watch it to correct my mistakes – Talk about eagerness to be the best! I was mad – mad with desire to get that hip action right, to nail those turns and many other things. I spent countless hours in front of the mirror perfecting every little thing. My parents thought I was obsessed, possessed… I was possessed by the DANCING FEVER! But I didn’t care. All I cared about was improving my dancing. I think without “strong ambition” I would not have put in the practice that I did and I would not get to where I am today.
Now that I have told you that you need to be ambitious to improve as a dancer, guess what? You can become more ambitious! The great thing about ambition is that if you really love dancing it is usually there hidden inside of you somewhere. All you need to do is re-inspire yourself to feel it again. I wrote an article called inspiration butt-kicking for dancing which you may want to check out to get some ideas of where to start. After you have gained that ambitious, anxious enthusiasm to become the very best dancer you can be, you will likely develop strong practice ethics which is crucial for improvement. Because strong ambition leads to practice and practice leads to better dancing.
By: Leon Turetsky
Professional dance instructor
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Too few instuctors require the man to be a better leader.
Can you please expand? The article is on “How to become a better dancer”.
I think you are forgetting about the people who just want to be happy social dancers. Yes, you still have to have the amibition and desire to learn, just like with anything. But people who are working (often more than 1 job) and bringing up families can’t solely concentrate on dancing.
There is nothing wrong with being happy social dancers and still be very serious about learning and practicing.
I work with many dancers like that.
That’s true. But there has to be a balance, and I have seen many drop out because of time objections. People need to understand that they need to practice – just like they need to practice golf and tennis – but it can’t be all consuming.
As a new social dancer, I think you do need amibition to practice and train enough to become comfortable with basic steps and patterns. Without this, dancing will not be relaxing or fun…to me, anyway.
I have been Dancing for almost 10 years now. With the same instructor, they are getting very lazy and nobody seems to be progressing I dont know what to do the good places are REALLY expensive and the rest are just worse than where i am at now. PleAse help!
Hi Emily, Where are you currently taking lessons? And what type of dancing do you do?
Leon: I believe that there are numerous motivations that drive ones interest in dancing and certainly Ambition is primary for anyone planning to make a career of it. Additional factors could include having the free time to practice, having a like minded dance partner available when you are free, having a facility that is close and has adequate space for practice, and having enough money to cover all the expenses for the preceding Talent, physical fitness, gracefulness in my view would all be needed to contribute to the drive to excel at dancing. Gene
Amen . to all that, Gene.
Also get out there to the dance clubs and dance as often as possible.
Totally agree with the ambition. However, practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent. I find it just as hard unlearning a mistake as it is to make a step/move engrained in muscle memory.
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