"Unlearning" a dance?

S

ShyDancer

New Member
Here is my dilemma...

I just came back from my first lesson for my new vogue medal, I thought I knew one dance well........ Sure I did, the SOCIAL way! :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Now I have to forget the 123 tap that I have been dancing for a solid 9 months and remember heel toe, toe heel, heel swivel ....even though the steps remain the same , its just rise and fall really.
Talk about confusing!

So my question is : How do you unlearn or re-train yourself to do the same dance ?!?!?

Of course Im going to practice practice practice, but surely one of you clever people has a few helpful gems o knowledege for me :D
 
Practice practice practice is the only way to relearn or "fix" something. I had to do this with Cha Cha as my previously learned technique was nowhere near what it now has to be. But make sure it is correct practice, though or you will just waste your time. It is a lot harder to relearn something, you slip back into the old ways from time to time, but with repetition, it soon becomes muscle memory and you no longer have to concentrate so hard on getting it right.

Good luck!
 
Like Dancin_Feet said, practice, particularly in the mirror, if you can, so that you can physically see what your feet are doing, and then again, without the mirror. Do as many repetitions as you can, focusing on what you are doing. The more you do it, the more "natural"/instinctive it will be come.

I believe someone said here that it takes about [6] weeks for an action to become subconcious/natural? I know, [6] weeks can seem like a long time, if I am remembering it correctly. However, the original poster did not say how many times a week you had to practice first :wink:
 
Okay, I think it might be about the same for muscle memory. Hopefully someone will be able to set me straight, and out of my misery -- trying to remember -- :lol:
 
Hey all -

This is my first reply on the dance forum Whoo hoo!
I too have recently had the same experience. I started taking dance through a course offered by a community college. BIG MISTAKE. I spent at least 8 months dancing with NO technique. After taking private lessons I am experiencing the same problems. How do you get past the frustration?
 
Welcome to the Forums jen88! :D

I had a simillar experience myself... after two years on a ballroom formation team I realized that I was missing fundamental techniques and that my dancing was actually suffereing! :shock:

Needless to say I didn't come back to the team the next year, started taking private lessons when I could, and my dancing got much better.

I'll try and ponder any tips I may have to ease the "unlearning" process and will post back if anything comes to mind...
 
It takes five weeks to produce a muscle memory. When you start learning to dance go out and buy book on dancing such as the ISTD on ballroom or latin dancing (about $12.00). This gives you the breakdown on the technique of dancing. Then you can check and see if your teacher is teaching you the right stuff. The same thing happened to me when I started dancing. But after a few weeks of practice and a bottle of gin things do get better. :cheers:
 
Thanks guys!

I am glad I am not alone. I know a lot of it is being a perfectionist .....it takes time to relearn and I keep expecting myself to fix it in one lesson. Being a musician, I of all people should know that isn't possible. Any tips would be helpful....the gin might do the trick! :o)[/img]
 
Hmmm, one thing that comes to mind is to try building from the ground up. Don't try and do what you already know how to do, just differently, but, instead, try and learn what you need to *do* as if from the start.

(Does that make sense?)
 
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Actually, it is working out exactly as you described. Everything is so different when you do it correctly that it feels as though you are starting from scratch. I really notice the difference in the Tango....body contact being the biggest difference. :lol: Hadn't quite done it like that before...ha ha ha
 
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