Does your teacher make you dance your routines by yourself?

[open_mind]

Where I practice there are championship level couples also practicing. I see them practice solo a lot, even though they are there together. So that tells me solo practice is not just for learning new steps.

Cool! maybe when I am the championship level (which is, never), I will find a value in practicing solo. I am just saying it has been counterproductive for me in the past.

 

[flying_backwards]

I should add that I would not have known how to practice solo had I not spent lessons asking my teacher to show me how. I believe you that there could be counterproductive ways of practicing solo. And I am sure I could do better at solo practice. I could learn more ways to check if I am executing actions properly.

Dancing with my partner is not always going to tell me if I am doing my part correctly either. Dancing with my teacher, sure, a miss-step is my doing. But with my amateur partner it could be either or both of us. And I am sure some of our errors go undetected by both of us, just as they might solo.

I do agree it is important to practice carefully so as not to practice wrong.

 

[JudeMorrigan]

My inclination is sort of to split the difference.

It is absolutely possible to productively practice by oneself. For the pro-am student dancer who isn't independently wealthy, it's a pretty much obligatory skill to learn. And I know my national pro rising star finalist could dance her pro stuff solo and would at least occasionally do so.

*But*, I also know with equal certainty that I have some really atrocious habits in my dancing that are pretty much a direct byproduct of the fact that 95% of my dancing these days is done solo. There are aspects that are simply not the same dancing with Francesca (my invisible partner) versus another actual human being. And my ability to compartmentalize away the differences is imperfect at best.

 

[FancyFeet]

@JudeMorrigan, love that you have named your imaginary partner too - I thought I was the only one who did that!

 

[chomsky]

LOL. I joke to people that I'm still paying instructors to tell me the same things they were telling me when I started 10 years ago: take smaller steps, stand up straight, less muscle, etc.

thanks for this...this is so so me...

 

[Joe]

Is Francesca Italian, Spanish, or French?

 

[JudeMorrigan]

Water-bottle-ish, I think technically.

 

[Miss Silly]

Yes we definitely dance our standard routines solo quite often. In fact if we can't, we get in some pretty serious doo doo. LOL

I struggle more to do it in latin with our open routines (particularly jive like, a patty cake to speed LOL) but i try what I can.

 

[flying_backwards]

@JudeMorrigan, love that you have named your imaginary partner too - I thought I was the only one who did that!

Not the only one! My practice stick I dance around with balanced on my outstretched arms I named Marcus. Everyone at the studio knows his name. Instead of saying "Show that to me solo" my teacher says "Dance it with Marcus." But it seemed somehow a shade disrespectful toward the eponymous M.B.E. so earlier I referred to him as Mr. Invisible. That's the term we use in group class.

 

[cornutt]

Water-bottle-ish, I think technically.

Lol... I have at times been caught using an actual water bottle to practice pivots with.

 

[Loki]

Lol... I have at times been caught using an actual water bottle to practice pivots with.

Four foot length of black natural gas supply line pipe. Just have to be careful of my toes (and shins). Also comes in handy for whacking things that annoy me.

 

[snapdancer]

Four foot length of black natural gas supply line pipe. Just have to be careful of my toes (and shins). Also comes in handy for whacking things that annoy me.

Note to self: don't go anywhere near Loki when he's practicing.

 

[j_alexandra]

Lol... I have at times been caught using an actual water bottle to practice pivots with.

2-pound medicine ball, here. Also a theraband

 

[StartedLateButCompetitive]

yes, she made me to dance routine so she could pick things I did wrong etc etc

 

[blackswan]

I compete Bronze, and my pro wants me to be capable of dancing routines on my own, both to demonstrate that I know the sequence and understand the figures and also that I am balanced on my own. He has also had me dance with my eyes closed, which is an interesting feeling. So far he has not asked me to dance on my own with eyes closed. ;-)