3 powerful strategies to become a better freestyle dancer

Three powerful strategies to become a better freestyle dancer 

Dancers are known to be hardworking people. Often we train hard, but we see few results. So how can we train more effectively?

 To see progress as a freestyle dancer, you need to understand these three ways of working. I've been working like this for a long time now. And I can tell you, I've seen a huge difference in the way I progress and also the way I can track my results, so these 3 ways are: 

1: Working in your dance 

2: Working on your dance 

3: Working out of your dance 

Let's dive in...

They are equally important. 

Each of these three ways of working is extremely important. And to get the best result possible, you need to understand how to do three of them. You can't be just working in your dance and never work on your dance or out of your dance.

 You need to have a combination of them to get the best result.

1: Working in your dance 

So let's talk about how to work in your dance. Working in your dance is the standard that most dancers do. Working in your dance is pretty straightforward.

It's when you are in a dance studio, and you're practising. You are working in your dance because you're physically there working on your style, movement, techniques etc... This is how you work in your dance. 

There's no need to spend much time working in your dance because that's the standard.

2 working on your dance.

Now let's talk about how to work on your dance. 

So working on your dance is about taking the time to step back and analyse your dance. When you're dancing, try to find a way to film yourself. Then take the time to watch what you're doing and analyse your freestyle practice.

How to analyse? 

There are two ways to do that. When looking at yourself, don't just admire what you're doing. Oh, I'm good; I love what I do... That's fine. It's good to love yourself, but at the same time, try to pinpoint your weaknesses. Try to identify your strengths, so you can work on them. In other words, try to be very objective when looking at yourself and not just be too positive or negative about yourself.

Try to find the right balance to understand what you're doing well and what you can improve.

The second thing to do is to get feedback from other people. Yeah. That's also very important. Remember that when asking for feedback, you're not looking for good or bad feedback. Instead, you want constructive feedback. Even if someone gives you negative feedback, you want to understand why this person gave you this feedback. So it's the same thing for positive feedback. You're not just waiting for someone to say, Oh my gosh, you're so amazing; you're so great. I love the way you dance. 

Your answer can be... thank you for your compliment. You said I'm amazing. And you like the way I dance, but why do you like the way I dance? Why do you think that I'm amazing? And then this person will start developing. Here is why I believe you are amazing because of this and that, or here is why I give you this negative feedback because of this, this, this.

Study other freestyle dancers

The third way you can work on your dance is by analysing other dancers.

So now you've been analysing yourself. You also had feedback from other people. Now it's time to study other dancers. Look up to dancers you admire, and try to understand what they are doing well, what they are really good at and how they do it.

Being a dancer and an artist, it's essential to understand how to analyse other people. Understand how they work so you can replicate what they do and put it in your style. I'm not saying that you should copy anyone because if you're doing this, there's no way you will be unique. And if you're not unique, there's no way you will be able to stand out from the competitive freestyle dance community. But you really want to analyse what people are doing. So keep analysing.

How to analyse other freestyle dancers effectively? 

Don't just watch someone dancing and say, Oh my gosh, she's fantastic. No, try to understand why she's amazing. And next, how can you learn from this person? If you just get in the habit of analysing some of your favourite dancers, your eyes will see differently. You will start looking at the dancers that you admire differently. You will look for the information that will get you to the next level. 

These are the type of exercises that you can do to work on your dance, which are watching yourself, dancing and analysing what you're doing well and what you're not doing well. Secondly, you also want to get feedback from other people, and thirdly, you also want to analyse different dancers.

3: Working out of your dance.

Now, let's talk about working out of your dance. Most dancers are so passionate we think that we just need to work hard, work hard, and work hard.

That's true. There is no way you will be great if you're not working hard like it's impossible? So yes, we need to work hard. We will know that, but sometimes we also need to work out of our dance and what I mean by working out of your dance it takes one week or two weeks without dancing at all.

Yes, that's right, no dance at all. 

You want to do that because you want to be able to let your body digest all the information you've been practising. Because when you're training, 

often you will not see the results immediately, but when you come back right after one or two weeks' break, you feel fresh. You feel like, Oh my gosh, I can do this now. I've been learning this, but I feel it more in my body. Now I can feel this new information because you let your body digest the information.

Now your body digests this information. It's time to play with your new skills because now you've got them in you. 

To give you an idea of how you should work on these 3 ways. 60% of your training should be working in your dance 60%. Then 30% of your training is working on your dance, and 10% should be working out of your dance.

I've got inspired to change my way of training. After reading this book, the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, is not a dance book is a business book. And yeah, enjoy it. And thank you for reading this post. 

I hope you will take the time to. Try this technique of working. And if you do, please let me know. I would be happy to hear from you. Stay focused on your dance, and you'll see results.