Finding Your Way In The Dance Jungle
11.20.06

Beth and I talk quite frequently about the "Dance Jungle." During lessons, everything is controlled and there is someone watching over you as you continue your journey to another level in your dancing. Once you leave those cozy confines and find your next dance floor to tread, it is sometimes a daunting environment.
 
First thing I like to remind anyone that relates some level of discomfort is to "go home." No...I'm not talking about physically leaving the dance. Instead, establish your dancing in basics until you get comfortable. So many dancers start learning their basic and then jump from point A to point P due to impatience. The mechanisms to cope with your dance comfort are built into your familiarity with your body and how it relates to the dancing your doing. Jumping into new moves without being truly ready with a good foundation leads many to never getting comfortable with the dance or even worse discouraging themselves by never mastering the foundation that would allow them to truly execute the fancy stuff properly.
 
Being on the cutting edge is not all it is cracked up to be. Many of you have computers and some of you may have come to realize that many software companies use the public as the testing ground for their products. You get the latest whatchamaflangit and not only doesn't it always add two and two together with the same answer, but it eats your email too!
 
Think of your dancing in these terms and you may see that you not only risk elevating your own discomfort, but may generate those "guinea pig" feelings in your partners! It's one thing if you let them know ahead of time and they get to play Dr Frankenstein with you as well. It is quite another to start attaching the electrodes to that partner that is now trying to edge for the door.
 
Another aspect of getting comfortable is staying small. Now, coming from a 280 pound ex-football player, that may sound a bit silly, but it is a good strategy. Small steps are easier to execute than big stomping steps. We prove that everyday in our trips to the 'frig, bathroom and occasional work place! Don't dance bigger than you walk and you will find this a much more comfortable activity. We're told to pick up our feet as kids, but really, how many of us march around town, eh? Keeping our feet close to the ground is natural and dancing with our feet just skimming the floor is perfectly acceptable no matter what mom says!
 
Staying small helps when you do want to get noticed after your get comfortable. Picture someone doing jumping jacks, cartwheels and rolling their head like Linda Blair during an exorcism. After you get off the floor from your laugh, now picture them doing this ALL NIGHT LONG...
 
This is what someone reminds me of when they do nothing but the fancy stuff (I know...therapy may help me, but then you wouldn't get these fanciful descriptions...). If someone is doing mostly basic dance work and then throws in a "TA-DA" move and then goes back to basics, it isn't lost in the shuffle. Sprinkle one or two into a dance and you will become noticed in a good way (The priest coming across the floor is for the other guy. Just stand back...).
 
One last piece of advice for this week is PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR PARTNER! There have been many times as a budding dancer that I found myself more comfortable because the partner for that dance made it a point to pay attention to me during the entire dance. Dancing with someone while scanning the room for your next ex-wife, dance partner or hitman looking for you is not going to engender you to that partner. He or she has become your teammate for 3-4 minutes. Treat that with respect and you will get it back not only from that partner, but others they talk to down the road.
 
I find that the focus I give my partner grounds me as well. Although I tend to be a big ham, there are times when I feel self conscious on the dance floor. My focus on the partner shuts down some of the outside influences on my mind and tends to make me settle down. As long as I am not giving stalker eyes (ask the ladies guys...they know exactly what we are discussing here.), but real attention to the partner, the team tends to focus leading to better feelings and better dancing. Try it and I think you will find this to be a great mechnism to make it one more step through the dance jungle.