challenge yourself in class

Matthew Neff | Jan 17, 2008 | 0

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I talk about a video in my blog. I'll explain everything that is going on. I know your finger is itching. You know you want to click it. Click on the READ MORE button. CLICK CLICK CLICK.

so you know your body is craving class right? So what do you do? Do you challenge yourself or do you go with what comes natural and easy? Hopefully you challenge yourself. How else do you grow? It doesn't matter what you look like doing the combo. You should feel like you have an idea of the sequence, at least, and then look at the areas to improve on.

This video is an example of how much dancers, at any level, can "give" in class. This is one of the groups from my class on Wednesday. The class is at New Dance Group in NYC. The combo was a lot to digest in the 20 minutes I taught it in. The two people in the front are musical theater people. More singers than dancers. They both will admit this is not their finest performance. The  girl in the back in the white tank is there for pure recreational purposes. She just dances because she loves it. I am in the guy in the back with the big butt.

If you watch the video, you will see a lot of mistakes from the students but you see them working their butts off. I tell people all the time that it's not about copying what I do exactly. It's more about freeing your mind from wanting to control every aspect of what the body is doing. Technique is a key element but getting lost in movement is more enjoyable, both as a viewer, and as a dancer. The three students in this clip are all at different levels of their dancing ability but at the end what do you see? Smiles. They are just happy to have made it through. Sure they need to work on spotting, turning out, lengthening lines, maintaining their center,  spinal alignment, getting loose and freeing their brain from the farts that happen. At least they are taking a class that is harder for them. I'll toot my own horn and say that the warm up is also extremely hard. It's not overly choreographed. It uses basic warm up elements done in the center, but it really focuses on creating stronger and more technically adept dancers.

So my advice for today is...... challenge yourself. When I teach I try to challenge myself. The students are always challenged (in a good way). At the end of class there are smiles and laughter. That's what class should be. (also everyone should be taking ballet regularly--- listen to mama)

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Jazz, choreography, dance class (all tags)