Body Coordination
Body coordination is the simultaneous movement of body parts to complete a specific movement pattern, like walking, swimming, riding a bike, and dancing.
When we first learn any new movement pattern, like a baby learning to walk, our muscles aren’t familiar with the movement so it appears jerky or “robotic.” When we repeat the movement pattern through practice and over time, our body remembers the patterns. We call that “muscle memory” and we are able to execute the moves smoothly, with ease, and with minimal thought.
A dancer, like a toddler, may start out robotic and teetering, but with practice and time develops smooth rhythmic movements.
Rhythm & Musicality
Step 1: Find the beat.
“I have no rhythm,” also known as “Beat deafness,” is a person’s inability to distinguish musical rhythm. In reality, this only affects 4% of the population. These are good odds for you, if you ask me.
What I’m trying to say is, it is highly likely that you can learn to find the beat and we can teach you.
Step 2: Tempo. Keep the rhythm once you’ve found it.
Once you learn how to find the beat for the music genre you want to dance to, then you learn how to maintain the tempo.
If you are struggling to dance on beat, it’s one of two things. Your body doesn’t have the muscle memory of the movement you are trying to perform, or you haven’t internalized the rhythm.
Our rhythm training takes you through the repetition of counting with your instructor, clapping, and performing basic movements to the beat. This helps you develop an ear for music so that you can do this on your own.
Step 3: Interpret and express the music.
Once you can hear the music, and perform the movements of your dance genre without much thought, you will have the brain space to interpret the music to highlight various sounds, instruments, and hits in the song. This is an advanced skill and the ultimate goal for a dancer.
Connection
Connection is what makes partner dancing so fun. There is a “lead” that directs the movement of the other dancer, the “follow.”
When you’re first learning connection, you’re learning the language of that dance genre. The lead gives a signal, the follow interprets the signal.