being nervous

As competitions come up and tensions get high on competitive teams, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out. That’s why it’s important keep your cool when those times arise. When Competitions come practices get more stressful and intense. Practices are longer and more tiring than normal. It’s important to keep your cool especially when you are being critiqued or judged. It’s easy to just think about all the negative in those situations but focusing on what you need to get better on and trying to fix what you need to fix is all that your team is trying to help you with.

When being critiqued don’t take all the negative comments as a personal attack on you. Your team is only trying to help you get better so as a team you can all look together, clean and sharp. It can get stressful, but just breathe and try to stay with it. Teammates during these, competition, times can easily get on your nerves as well too. Don’t take everything your teammates say as serious as you normally would. Routine critiques are important, but little obnoxious comments that people sometimes say shouldn’t be taken too seriously during competition times because everyone is stressed and anxiety in general is already coming from your coach not to mention your already boiling nerves.

It’s important to have friends on your team. It’s important to have friends on your team so you don’t feel lonely or left out. Especially when everyone else are friends, you don’t want to feel like the outcast. When competition times come it’s important to have friends on your team that can build you up and help you get through the long practices and critiquing of others. Sometimes it’s just good to have someone who knows what you’re talking about and can relate to what you’re struggling with. It’s also good to have someone you can have fun with on your team. As time goes on I’m sure you will be able to grow your relationship with the other people on your team and sooner than later you’ll all be friends.

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being yourself in dance

Dance is meant to be fun and creative. Improv is  a good way to let go and to just let the music speak to you. You improve everyday when you're in you're room dancing to your music. You listen to the beat and let your body move with out even thinking. Improv is a good way to just let go and be free. It lets you make up your own dance moves and dance with your own style.

At dance studios, often times the instructor will let the class improv for a song or two. Just to let you dance to your own style and be creative in your dancing. It's said that dancers are the first to loose themselves because they're told to copy and mimic dancers and learn routines as in synch as possible to other people almost to the point of perfection. They aren't allowed to have a personal feeling and style in a dance because it has to be together, or clean, as a whole with everyone else on stage and together. Improv every now and then is a good way to stay in tune to your style and enjoyment of dancing.

When improvisation is done at my studio, in my classes, I always get really nervous because I think I'm going to mess up or do something wrong and people are going to look at me because I messed up or danced awkwardly. When in reality no one really cares and the point of improv is to try new things and be creative with your dancing. It's hard to dance like yourself when you're surrounded by a whole bunch of people you don't know, but just listen to the music and dance to your own beat. You're there to have fun and dancing without stress, with you're own style can be very uplifting and enjoyable.

Improv is done a lot in lyrical classes. It's done in about every class, jazz, hip hop, etc. Lyrical though is a big place for improv though because its more of an emotional type of dance. The movements flow together more and improv is done a lot in this class just because since it is easier to express emotions there for easier to express your style and mood of dance in a lyrical class. Just remember to not think about you or how people think of you when you improv because it's a learning experience. It's a time to figure out what works and what doesn't, just have fun and dance to your own beat and style.

expressions

Faces are a big and important aspect of performing. No matter where you’re performing or who you’re performing in front of. Faces make your performance more enjoyable for you and your audience to watch. They also help in making mistakes less noticeable and add to the theme and mood of your dance.

Faces make your performance more enjoyable to watch. They make you look like you're having a blast even though you're actually exhausted and about to pass out. They make your performance more entertaining for people to watch and more enjoyable for you as well. Facials during your performance make you feel more energetic during your routine. The more faces you make and the more smiles you have the more fun you will have too. Faces help express the mood of your dance as well. Whether your dance is sassy, sad, or emotional, your face can express a lot to the audience.

 When you mess up, because it has happened to all of us, faces make it less noticeable to the judges or to your audience that an incorrect move was done. If you lose your face when you perform because you messed up or because you just don't do faces then the audience’s attention is drawn to you and either makes you look sloppy or unprofessional. Making the performance less enjoyable for you and your audience. Especially during a judged performance or competition it's important to play off incorrect moves, not that there should be incorrect moves, but if there is, not losing your face is super important so that you don't bring attention to yourself and get points taken off because the judges noticed you make a mistake.

 It’s important to practice faces in practice. Have you ever heard of the quote, maybe from your coach or the Internet, "perfect practice makes perfect"? Well this quote may not be entirely true because no one can be perfect, but this quote reaches a really good point. If you practice right in practice then you're going to perform it right. You'll get it right if you practice right. Practicing correctly and full out in practice will make it easier for you when competitions come. You’ll already have facials down and won’t have to be reminded or have to think about doing them in your routine or worry about them last minute. To help with faces, try practicing making faces in your mirror at home to get you use to making lots of faces. To help you make different kinds of faces try doing your vowels (a,e,i,o,u) faces. I’ve been told all the way back from when I was little and I was doing cheerleading that we need to practice our faces. Our coach would tell us to go home and practice our vowels in the mirror. Changing your faces a lot during your routine will make your performance more entertaining as well, so practice changing them often during your routine.

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