3 Things You Can Do To Become A Better Dancer

There are many proficient dancers in the world today. To be honest, I find watching most of them to be a rather empty experience. I’ve noticed that, over time, dancing in both popular culture and onstage has gotten less and less compelling. However there will always be those who shine, even if they are in the minority.

Below are three ways a great dancer distinguishes themselves from the technical knockoffs so common in our dance world today.

1. Great Dancers Know That Technique Doesn’t Equate to Artistry

In the world of dance today, technique reigns supreme. The mirror is revered and dancers are ranked based on height of extension, purity of line, number of turns executed, and any number of other technical criteria.

This would seem to be transforming dance into a sport, instead of an art. A sport where what is good and bad can be measured quantitatively and geometrically. As sports are generally measured in competitive rather than artistic terms, this pushes dance into a condition where being unique is penalized, and where artistry and performance skills go by the wayside.

However, great dancers know that while technique is important, it’s far from the whole story. It’s barely half of what a dancer needs to be considered “great”. So many components go into dance: components such as knowledge of music and musicality, storytelling abilities, and training in mime and gesture to name a few. Great dancers know this and spend time learning all the skills that go into being a great dancer, not just technique.

2. Great Dancers Get To Know Themselves As Artists

The greatest asset any dancer has is their natural expressive movement. This is often stripped or inhibited by training in dance.

In order to balance the indoctrinating effects of training in dance, great dancers get to know who they are as artists. Some ways this can be done are:

1. Experiment as to what type of movement feels best on your body, despite what you’ve been trained to do. Perhaps it actually feels better on your body to be turned-in than turned-out. Maybe graceful ballroom type movements feel better than more rhythmic movements to you. Discover what type of movement truly feels most natural to you, despite your training.
2. Do some improv dancing on your own to music that inspires you and video yourself dancing. Watch it and see how it looks. Is it natural? Easy and flowing? Or does it seem forced or unlike you?
3. Be honest with yourself when watching other “great” dancers. Do you actually like it? What does watching this person give to you as an audience member? Or are you just amazed and inspired by their technique? What could this dancer give to an audience composed of “normal” people? What are your personal thoughts on these things, other than what you’ve been told by others or by the dance media?

3. Great Dancers Know The Biggest Secret Of All

The greatest ability a dancer will ever have, over and above anything else, is their ability to communicate to an audience. How well they can communicate and involve an audience in what they are doing is the ultimate test of their ability as a dancer and the only really true test.

Dancing today often has just one communication to the audience:  “Look at what I can do!”. For proof of this, watch any episode of So You Think You Can Dance or one of the millions of dance Instagram accounts out there.

A communication between an audience and a performer has to allow the audience to participate in the performance. The more they can participate, the “better” the performance could be said to be. If all an audience can do to participate is to clap and say “Wow, that was amazing.”, that’s not a very full experience for them, nor is it very inspiring. They won’t remember it, or you, for very long.

Great dancers work on their performance and other skills in order to be able to communicate as fully as possible to an audience.

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