Jazz Dance Yoga

Can you learn to dance if you have no rhythm?

Whereas Dame Ninette de Valois was never a great dancer herself, but her ballet classes were among the best I've ever seen.

 

So if you joined a school and didn't learn very much, ask yourself - could it have been the teacher at fault, not me?

 

Different people have different ways of learning. A good teacher should take that into account. A good teacher should be able to explain steps, not just demonstrate them, and be able to correct students who are making mistakes, without making them feel picked-on.

 

The other possibility is that you picked a style of dance that doesn't suit you, or was too technical. If you've never danced before, the complex rhythms and fast footwork of flamenco would be too much of a challenge as a first dance style. If you're inflexible, I wouldn't recommend ballet or jazz to start with - do some yoga first, or pilates.

 

A good starting point for most people is social dancing like Ballroom, Latin or Street Latin, Swing or modern jive (Ceroc etc). You don't need to bring your own partner - most schools rotate partners so you won't feel left out if you're on your own.

 

For women, belly dancing is a good introduction because it's gentle, the environment is very supportive and the beginners' steps are simple. In Australia, you can find a belly dance class in your suburb on the Australian Belly Dance Video Directory.

 

 

It's never too late to learn....

I got rhythm...

The final - and unfortunately, the biggest - stumbling block is rhythm. Going back to those dancing children - they all dance when the music plays, but you'll notice that some dance in sync with the beat, whereas others bop around with no reference to the rhythm.

 

Those children who keep time without thinking are lucky. A lack of rhythm is by far the biggest obstacle to learning to dance - but it's not insurmountable. I used to think a sense of rhythm was inborn - you either had it or you didn't.

 

Then I started flamenco. All of a sudden I was in a different world - songs with 12 beats to the bar, routines that started on 12 instead of 1 - even melodies in 3/4 or 4/4 time seemed to cut across the rhythm in strange ways. I felt I'd lost my sense of rhythm completely! I noticed my Spanish colleagues, who'd grown up with the music, took the rhythms for granted - just the way I'd taken mine for granted. But eventually, I learned.

 

It made me realise my sense of rhythm had been learned, not inborn. I'd been surrounded by music all my life - starting with my mother singing lullabies, then the radio, then my teenage sisters' records, then my piano lessons, and I had just absorbed it.

 

So these days, I believe rhythm can be learned. However, trying to learn to keep time and master dance steps, all at the same time, is too much new information at once! If you have no rhythm, it's easier to fix that problem first - then graduate to dancing when you begin to feel the beat.

 

If you have a friend or family member with a good sense of rhythm, get them to sit with you and clap along to music - any music.

About the Author

Felipe is a dance techer specialising in Tango and salsa but he also has a love for pole dance. x-stage podium, x-stage podium, x-stage pole dance podium

Is it easy to pick up Jazz dancing?

I'll be starting Jazz dances this Saturday and I was wondering if it would be easy to pick up in a year? I'll be sticking with it for longer but I want to know about how long it will take me to actually get good at it. I have NO previous dance instruction except for ballet when I was about five and I am definitely NOT flexible though I do do yoga.
Thanks

i started jazz last year and did one class a week
i added another class during the middle of the year and i have improved so much

Its quite easy to catch up on but you should try to find a teen class that is not vocational

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