Are you really dancing or just moving?
Are you really dancing, or are you just moving?
Have a proper think about it before you answer, because I suspect a fair few of you won’t like where this one goes.
In Brazilian Zouk, there are 3 things that have to be working together in synergy before I would claim that you’re dancing.
- Movements on time with the music.
- Dancing with yourself.
- Dancing with your partner.
That’s the list. Those are the minimum criteria that need to be met before you go around claiming you are dancing.
Now, before anyone jumps down my throat. It’s not black and white. I am not saying you need to be doing all 3, 100% of the time. Nobody is doing that (I’m certainly not). But if you’re under 50% of the time, off time, not dancing with your partner, or not dancing with yourself, then you aren’t really dancing. You’re just prancing about moving your body.
And genuinely, nothing wrong with that. If you’re out there enjoying yourself, enjoy yourself! But if you truly want to dance, then work on those 3.
I don’t have a lot more to say about the 3
Honestly, I don’t. Not here anyway.
I’ve written lots of blogs that work on each one of them, going back years. What basic movements are and why they matter and who steps first for the timing. Moving consciously, what to practice solo and the key to effective practice for dancing with yourself. Become the dance listener for dancing with your partner. The engineering of it is already written down.
This one is the observation.
A good 70% of London isn’t really dancing
Watching the dance floor is what I like to do most of the time these days. Sat there, drink in hand, watching.
And that’s what a good 70% of the dancers in London look like to me. They aren’t really dancing. They’re just moving off time to the music.
That’s my read of it, from watching. Take it or leave it.
I know exactly how it feels
Let me be honest here, because it would be very very easy to sit on the side and pretend I arrived fully formed.
I couldn’t dance on time consistently for the first 5 years of my dance journey. Five years!
I spent the last 15 years listening to music pretty much 10 hours a day, every single day. While I’m working. While I’m doing chores. While I’m doing anything, really. So I learn to process music in my brain.
And these days, yeah, it’s been a lot of consistent intentional practice, because I’m dancing and practising.
There’s no shortcut in there. There never was.
Do you want to know what I spend most of my time watching?
Below the waist.
The core, the hips, the knees, the angles, the feet, the toes. How the weight transfers. Their footwork. How natural and how fluid the movement is. And how much of their range of motion they’re actually using, at different heights and different sizes.
It’s incredible how much you can learn just observing the lower half of the body.
This isn’t a new position for me either. Back in 2017 I drew up the Solo Practice Pyramid, 4 body sections worked from the ground upwards, most of your time on section 1 (footwork, knees, balance and axis) and less and less as you go up to section 4 (head and neck). What I wrote then still stands: “I build my dance from the bottom up, but I’ve seen many dancers and teachers who would build from the top down or just random.”
Nine years on. Still watching the same thing. Still seeing the same thing.
Headless chickens
I have no respect for dancers who keep throwing head movements around with poor footwork.
Generally I don’t actually give a fuck about the upper body much. What makes me cringe is all that upper body movement flapping around like headless chickens, with little or fuck all lower body movement or balance.
It’s so bad. Real bad.
And it isn’t just bad to watch. It’s a ticking time bomb. That’s how people end up with unrepairable back injuries in their later years.
So, are you dancing?
Three things. On time with the music, with yourself, with your partner. Working together. Under 50% and you’re moving, not dancing.
You already know which one of the 3 is your weakest. Go and work on that one.
Anyways. Hoi the critic strikes again lol.
If You Want to Go Deeper
- What are basic movements and why are they so important?, the foundations underneath all 3.
- Brazilian Zouk basic timing. Who steps first?, the fundamental rule that keeps a partnership on time.
- Moving Consciously in Brazilian Zouk Dance, where I first said that moving for the sake of moving isn’t dancing.
- What To Practice in Zouk Solo and 7 Great Reasons To Practice Zouk Solo, because you can’t dance with someone else until you can dance on your own.
- Become The Dance Listener By Using The 3 Dance Approach, the listening half of dancing with a partner.
- 14 Years of Zouk. Same Dancers on the Sidelines. and How To Avoid Becoming A Terrible Dancer In London, for the longer version of the London observation.
Hoi x