Dance Tips for Successfully Practicing at Home

Dance Tips for Successfully Practicing at Home

Ariel Hsieh

June 15th 2021

This past year, we have all struggled with the social distancing required to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the coronavirus pandemic, and many of us haven’t stepped into a dance studio since the pandemic began. Some of us may not have danced since the pandemic began, but ask yourself: What’s stopping you from practicing at home?

. . . I don’t have the time.

Before the pandemic, you took the time to go to your local dance studio to practice. If you had time then, then you are sure to have time now. Commit the time you spent at the dance studio before to practice. You can even add the commute time you spent getting to your dance studio to your practice time! Set the alarm on your phone, and commit yourself to dance practice at the time you have set for yourself. NO EXCUSES!

. . . I don’t have a dance space.

Work on moves that can be performed in the space that you do have, and if you don’t have any space at home, grab a speaker and head to your local park! Make the basketball or tennis court your dance space. If you live in a quiet neighborhood, you can even dance on the street. You also don’t need to be directly practicing dance to be working on improving your dancing. Increase your flexibility with some stretching. Cycle, swim, or run to improve your cardiovascular endurance. Build muscle tone with some weight training exercises. Become a better dancer by making a stronger body.

. . . I don’t have access to my dance instructor.

Instead of improving through learning new things. This can be the time to improve by working on what you already know. Take the time to remember your past lessons. Perhaps take a new look at some old choreography and see how you can improve your performance of it. Work on mastering old moves that you didn’t have the time to perfect before. Improving the basic building blocks of your dance style would always help you improve your dancing by leaps and bounds! Instead of relying on your dance instructor for corrections, film yourself dancing so you can review and self-critique your performance. This is also a good exercise in becoming more self-aware of your movements when you dance. If you absolutely need a dance instructor, see if there’s any offering online classes, and there is also the wonderful world of youtube where you can find dance tutorials for every dance you would ever want to learn. If you feel like it, perhaps try learning a new dance. Any dance is better than no dancing at all.

. . . I don’t feel motivated.

The hardest thing to overcome in practicing at home is motivation. Perhaps all you want to do is to binge that next Netflix series, or play some video games. Dancing is hard, and without the support of your dance community, finding motivation to dance can be quite difficult. Start out by setting some small goals for you to reach everyday. Perhaps today, your goal is to do some stretching, and tomorrow, review that small section of your choreography. Ease yourself back into the dance mindset and commit more and more time as you get back! Best of all, find a dance buddy! Call up one of your dance friends and have a practice session over video chat. Take this time to discuss dance techniques, show and critique each other’s performance, create some new choreography together, or just have a dance party!

Practicing dance at home can seem intimidating, and it definitely will be different from practicing in a dance studio, but with some modifications and reframing, you can also successfully practice at home. Try it out and make the adjustments necessary to make it work for you.

Happy Dancing!