Eveline werd gevraagd om een gastblog te schrijven
Voor de, in Brussel gesitueerde, Easy Swing dansschool mocht ik een gastblog schrijven! Wat tof! Ik koos voor een onderwerp dicht bij mijn hart. Je zeker (of onzeker) voelen in je dansen. Iets wat echt niet nodig is, want als jij danst op jouw manier, straalt het plezier er van af. En dat is waar dansen om draait, plezier, genieten en vooral jezelf zijn!
Lees mijn blog op de website van Easy Swing
I would like you to dance for you, enjoy what you are doing and by doing that being the most wonderful dancer you can be.
Today I will write to you about self-confidence and (in)security within dancers.
As a teacher I see it all around me, dancers who dance for someone else instead of for themselves. This can be literal, like in a competition, dancing for the jury. Or it can be for a ‘made-up’ jury, for instance the people standing on the side of the floor drinking their drinks, or the teachers who are dancing 3 couples away.
Some dance for their (dance)partner, some dance for the photographer.
Either way, they are not dancing for themselves.
A phase!
This is a phase I went through, years back, when I started dancing competitions and trained more often with my partner.
I wanted to become better, and it couldn’t go fast enough. Because I was constantly adjusting to my partner, the (what I thought were) demands of the jury and trying all tips from all teachers at once, I was losing contact with my own dancing.
After a while I didn’t even get happy from dancing, because I lost sight of why I was dancing.
Whenever I stood on the dancefloor I checked, sometimes unconsciously, other peoples faces. But also checked my partner a lot, was he still happy with how I was following? Did the teachers watch me? What did their faces express? Oh my gosh, I missed a step, now I am on the wrong foot, did the teacher see, did my partner notice?
As you can understand, this was very tiring and not helping me feel happy at all!
Lindy Hop should be the happy dance. At that point, for me, it wasn’t.
After a while I talked to a good friend and she said:
‘You are not dancing for you, you are dancing for everyone in the world, but not for your own joy.’
This resonated with me, it is so true.
From that moment on, I tried to always dance for my own happiness, or even for my own improvement, but never again for someone else.
Because if you are happy, if you are doing your own thing, your (dance)partner, teachers and all the people on the social enjoying their drinks, will see your happiness.
The same works for insecurity, if you are insecure, you will look like it, your brain and body will show it. You can train all you want, but it will always be visible.
When you do anything with a smile, it will always work out better than when you do it with frustration.
A smile makes you feel more secure and self-confident in seconds. In all of our classes we remind our students to do 2 things, smile and bounce.
When everything goes wrong, just smile and bounce.
Whenever your smile and bounce is in check, you can’t go wrong
I think that this feeling of confidence should be installed in every dancer, whatever you do, you are doing great. If the move is not working out yet, that is okay, you are trying and therefore growing.
Do you want to try that cool footwork variation? Go on! You messed up?
Perfect! Laugh it out. Don’t worry about what others think about it, maybe they (or you!) found it a cool variation and you have inspired them.
Let go of that insecurity and feel confident about you. Do not deprive yourself from joy, personal growth and the Lindy love because you are dancing for someone else.
Dance for you…
Be you…
Be happy!
