What separates a good dancer from a great dancer?… Let me tell you in 10 easy steps.
1. EMOTION
How does the music make you feel? Not all songs make people feel the same way. Dancing is about showing people what that song does for YOU! Learning the steps perfectly in class isn’t what it’s about for me, its what you GET OUT of it emotionally to ooze out of your performance.
2. MUSICALITY
Listen first. Sounds simple right? Always listen to the music and let the music take you. DON’T RUSH! If there’s a hard note in the song, go hard with your movement, if the music is soft, keep your movements soft and I promise your dancing will improve naturally.
3. DYNAMICS
Being able to understand your movements and make decisions on how your movements flow with the music is how you can go from a good to a GREAT dancer. Dynamics is about being able to change your movements in a routine, from how fast you choose to do a move to how quickly you do a move. It’s about having the right amount of light and shade in your routine.
4. PERFORMANCE
Performance is EVERYTHING in dance! So what if you don’t hit every move perfectly, if your performing and giving me faces and showing your feels, I’ll be too focused on looking at your performance, I wouldn’t even notice. Performance in dance makes routines much more interesting to watch.You want people to not be able to take their eyes off you…one way to do this is PERFORM!
5. LEVELS
You’ll hear me say this a lot in dance, GET LOWER! Levels in a routine creates excitement (more painful muscles) but so much more impressive to watch. Staying the same level will only allow the others on stage to stand out! So when I say get low, get low! You wan’t people watching you to not know where you are going next…keep them guessing!
6. FLAVOUR
Doesn’t a pizza taste better with a bit of extra flavour? This is what I love to see in dance. Take the choreography I teach you as a frame and always do your best to follow the movement paths of the choreographer. HOWEVER ever don’t be afraid to put your own spin on it, show me your character and add your own version and personality to my steps. The floor is yours.
7. TECHNIQUE
Creating shapes is your first challenge, knowing how to get from shape A to shape B is your second challenge. This creates amazing ‘movement QUALITY’. Focussing on core strength and movement from your head to your toes to your fingertips will improve your technique and understand what your arms are doing while your feet, body, eyes, face are doing something else! I work on technique A LOT every week in class, so don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
8. FITNESS
Having good fitness is a huge part of dance but trust me we didn’t all start super fit! You’re talking to someone who has over 7 years PT experience, I’m here to help YOU! If your doing a super energetic routine and your knackered, naturally you will start to perform less! Your movements won’t be as sharp and your performance may start to slack if you are tired, but, in classes I run the routines over and over again, which will help with your fitness and overall performance, so you can put 100% in to your performance all the time, so do not worry! Plus you’re burning a tonne more calories without even realising!
9. CONFIDENCE
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR TO ME. I want to make sure you all leave classes feeling 10X happier, 10X more motivated, 10X more inspired and 100X more confident than when you first walked in. Being trained in mindset, I work a lot on inner confidence rather than just dancing, we’ve all been that person who has been so scared before their first class or too nervous to even come at all, but you’ll realise once you’re with us loving life, that THE ARMY DC is one big family who support and encourage each other every single day, and
your self esteem and self WORTH will grow! That I can guarantee you.
10. BE YOURSELF
We have all sorts of ages, ability levels, boys, girls, and just people in general at THE ARMY DC, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you are, as soon as you step foot in the studio, your the same as everyone else. Everyone is equal, even if your the most confident person or the quietest person in the room, or if you 12 or 32, who cares?! Never pretend to be someone your not. Classes are there for YOU. So, Be bold, be brave and be YOU.
All you need to do is come to our classes to practice! You can see our current timetable here: https://thearmydc.com/classes/
We also have an exclusive pro team which perform at venues all around the UK. You can watch their latest performance here.