Dance - Practice! Practice! Practice!

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

29 Jun 2006 09:30 PM

Every dancer out there can attest to the following statement: dance is something that must be practiced over and over again. Like all forms of exercise, dance requires repetition in order to achieve the desired results. Check out the ballet room and the ballerinas who practice their 1st, 2nd, 3rd , 4th and 5th positions until they can do them in their sleep and that's just the beginning.

Take a Ballet Class

More and more dance studios are offering adults a chance to reignite childhood dreams and take dance classes they may not have been able to afford or had time for when they were children. If you enroll in a ballet class, be prepared to learn many of the same steps that the advanced ballet dancers perform during large stage productions and more.

When you are practicing, you will hear the instructor remind you to straighten your knees, bend from the hip, stretch out and more - you will hear this over and over again. The idea is to assist you in building the foundation that will help you dance with a partner or in your solos. Whether you take a ballet class to become a performer, for fun or for fitness, the rules are still the same.

When you are a beginning dancer, you use just about every part of your body even when performing the simplest of moves. This may make you feel awkward and jerky, relax - it takes time to train the muscles and it takes time to learn to use exactly what is necessary. That's part of the reason the mirror is there - so you can see what you are doing and learn what it feels like when you perform it correctly.

Grace, Style and Poise

Ballet teaches grace, style and poise. Ballet is the fundamental base for every other form of dance. I took ballet for five years and it made learning most other dance steps really easy. Later on this summer, I want to take a country line dancing class - I've always wanted to line dance because it looks so darn fun. I know those ballet lessons are going to pay off because I know how to hit my stride, my mark and use my muscles.

Have you ever taken a dance class?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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