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Tag: ballroom
Guest Post: Behind the Scenes of the Dancing with the Stars Season 27 Finale
I’m excited to welcome Laura as a guest writer today! She had the exciting opportunity to be an audience member at this past Monday’s live taping of the Season 27 finale of Dancing with the Stars (the one that’s causing a bit of commotion on the internet!). If you were surprised at the final results watching from home, then read on to find out what it was like in person!
5 Reasons You Should Attend Dance Camps
This past Saturday, I spent pretty much my entire day at the studio to attend an American Smooth dance camp. My studio holds these all-day camps at least once a quarter, and usually two in a row – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Both amateur and professional ballroom dancers attend the classes, sometimes sharing classes and sometimes splitting into separate groups. All have their heads filled with dance knowledge from top-level coaches.
Have you had the opportunity to attend workshops like these but wondered if it would be too much for you or you weren’t “good enough” yet?
Even at the risk of being overwhelmed, you should definitely include these kind of workshops or dance camps in your dance training, in my humble opinion. Here’s why:
Does a Champion Title Really Matter?
I’ve been pondering this question a lot this week, inspired by a comment left on a social media post that was promoting the Solo Practice Guide. I’ve been celebrating my World Champion title as much as the next dancer, but how much significance does it really have?
When You Can’t Hear the Music
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
First, a confession: I did not go to the studio for my Sunday solo practice today.
Dancing Through Disappointment on The Whole Dancer
Whether you started your dance training at 3, 30 or 70, one trait I’m sure we share as dancers is we are some of the most self-critical creatures on the planet. That means small disappointments can have big impacts on our psyches.
Check out my guest post on The Whole Dancer about how I’ve learned to dance through disappointment.
How to Practice Ballroom Dance as a Beginner
If you’ve been dancing ballroom for awhile and especially if you’re a competitor, then you have a decent-sized library of routines and drills that you can use in your solo practice. Your content is plentiful; you just have to decide what your focus will be based on your next event or longer term goals.
But what if you’re just getting started in ballroom? You’re on your first or second lesson package at your studio, you’re still breaking in your first pair of real dance shoes, and not in a million years can you imagine yourself wearing a costume covered with rhinestones. You don’t have any choreographed routines. Heck, you’re still trying to remember the difference between “cross body lead” and “crossover break.”
Have no fear, young grasshoppers! You too can reap the benefits of solo practice. You just need a slightly different approach while you build up your ballroom dance knowledge base. And don’t worry, I mixed up the names of the “cross” steps too.
Journey to the Center
So ironically, after writing my last blog post about recovering from a bad day, this weekend, I find myself having a tough time. If you caught my social media on Friday evening, then you know we experienced the very-rare-for-Orange-County thunderstorm! I love a good summer thunderstorm (we’ll ignore the fact that it’s October because it’s still in the 70s/80s here). But unfortunately, I also live with seasonal affective disorder, so gloomy weather makes me gloomy. It was gray and rainy all day on Saturday, and by Sunday morning, even though the sun started to come out, I was also feeling quite gray.
Recovering from a Bad Day
We all have bad days. Sometimes it feels like one thing after another goes wrong. Or we just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and can’t seem to ever get going.
It’s kind of like lemon juice on a paper cut when that bad day affects our dance lesson or practice. For whatever reason, we keep dancing left when our teacher wants us to dance right. Everything we thought we had in our muscle memory is coming up “file not found.”
It sucks, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
DWTS Contestant Bobby Bones – Just Being Himself or Mocking the Dance?
If you watched Dancing with the Stars on Monday night, you probably saw DWTS pro Sharna Burgess dance a foxtrot with radio personality Bobby Bones. Personally, I love Sharna’s choreography. She always comes up with something creative that plays to her partner’s strengths. So I was a little thrown when the dance ended with…flossing?
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 