Thursday, June 11, 2009

Some Tips For Learning How To Dance

Dancing is fun. Everybody should learn how to dance. If nothing else, what happens if you have a daughter and she gets married and expects you, as her father, to dance with her at her wedding? Won’t you look like a fool if you don’t know your two step from your samba? And you ladies, what gal doesn’t want to be swept off her feet on the dance floor by some hunky guy? Okay, so how about some tips for learning how to dance?

For starters, you DON’T have to go to a dance school. I don’t know why it is that people feel that they need to have one on one instruction. Sure, if the thought of some guy pawing you all day lights your bulb then go for it. Otherwise, it is just as easy to learn how to dance from watching some really well made videos. And the great part of videos is that you can start and stop them all you want. No hourly fee for lessons.

Dance shoes. If you are serious about this (you are serious, right?) then you are going to want to buy a pair of dance shoes. Depending on what kind of dancing you intend to do, those are the kind of dance shoes that you’re going to buy. You will not buy ballroom practice shoes to do square dancing and conversely, you’re not going to buy western dance boots for ballroom dancing. Yes, there are many different types of dance shoes. So you need to make sure you get the right pair for what you intend to learn.

Warming up. A lot of people just go right into their dance routine without any kind of warm up at all. This is asking for a cramp, pulled muscle or worse. It is ALWAYS a good idea to do some stretching exercises BEFORE you start dancing. That way, once the lessons begin, or your actual dancing begins, you don’t have to worry about being carried off the dance floor on a stretcher. I’m not kidding. Don’t go into dancing cold, especially if you’re not a kid anymore.

Dancing can be a ton of fun, and it’s not hard to learn how to dance. Essentially, it’s just a few steps. In my signature is a great resource that will get you started and on your way to becoming a professional dancer in no time at all.

So, You Want To Learn To Dance?

Dancing With The Stars did bring us one thing of value. More people are wanting to learn how to dance now that they see, not only how cool it is, but how knowing how to dance can get you lots of hot looking men and women, depending on just what it is you’re after. Well, before you go out finding some dance course, you might want to read this article first.

There are essentially two parts to dancing. The one is technical and the other is physical. Let’s start with the technical aspect first.

Technically, dancing is not hard. It essentially comes down to a series of steps, depending on what dance you’re doing, done in a sequence to a musical beat…usually one, two, three, four, unless you’re dancing a waltz, which is one, two three. These steps can be any one of a variety of steps, front, back, side to side, and so on. Each dance has its own sequence and variations. That’s why when you see somebody dancing, say a samba, no two people dance it the same way. Point is, the technical aspect of dancing comes down to memorization and a little coordination.

However, the physical aspect is a different can of worms altogether. What may look like a simple dance step technically, can be physically draining. For example, the Sailor’s Hornpipe, as performed by the Highland Dancers, is probably one of the most physically demanding dances ever created. A lot of the dance steps that you see on the Broadway stage are also very demanding. However, if you’re interested in just typical ballroom dancing, for the most part, you don’t have to be in magnificent shape.

And that’s the great thing about dancing. If you’re NOT in great shape, do enough of it and it will GET you into great shape. Ever look at the legs of dancers? I rest my case. Dancing is probably the best exercise that you’re ever going to get and the best part about it…it’s fun. Not like those boring exercises that you’ve been doing at home on your treadmill or whatever.