When you watch your dance videos

[open_mind]

I wonder what do you notice most when you watch yourself dance on a video? What mistakes/flaws jump at you right away? I notice that I don't stretch enough, everything looks smaller than what I actually felt dancing, like I don't push myself enough. Also, behind music/not on music sometimes. Funny that mistakes that I did know about, like missed steps, don't look so noticeable. If there was one goal for me, I would say it's to look better on videos. I find videos very useful tool and a great motivator to work on dancing bigger.

 

[Dr Dance]

(Showcase preparation) What strikes me mostly is the "focused face." This realization has helped to bring out "friendlier expressions" such as smiling more to help present that "effortless illusion" and allowing us to engage the audience to draw them in to "our world."

 

[bia]

I notice that I don't stretch enough, everything looks smaller than what I actually felt dancing, like I don't push myself enough.

This.

Also, on a recent comp video, that my skirt was less poofy than everyone else's. So I added horsehair to two underskirts, and the dress looked much better in the next video. If only making the dancing look bigger were as easy!

 

[s2k]

I watch, and as I'm listening, I'm thinking, "Gee, I'm dancing so slowly... the music seemed so much faster as I was dancing than it does as I'm watching the playback..."

 

[IndyLady]

I watch, and as I'm listening, I'm thinking, "Gee, I'm dancing so slowly... the music seemed so much faster as I was dancing than it does as I'm watching the playback..."

This is funny, I usually have the opposite reaction initially - the first time I watch a video, it looks like I'm on speed or some upper. Then on subsequent viewings, it "slows down" and I can see the details. Once I've watched it enough times (not going to say how many that might be, lol), then the visual and audio become out of sync because my brain already knows what it is going to see/hear (can never remember which) so it starts perceiving one of them before it happens.

 

[FancyFeet]

I drink. It helps

The first watch or two, I only see the errors. It takes me a few viewings to get to the point where I can see the positive, or the improvements. I also don't like to watch it for the first times with anyone else. I've often gone through it 4 or 5 times before I show it to pro, who will also watch it several times (and take a copy home to re-watch ad naseum)... then I'm to the point where I've watched it enough that I'm desensitized and will let people see it.

We've started to really use video as a tool, so the last few months we've been taping in practice, then watching, then immediately fixing. That's helping with my reaction to seeing myself on film, because it's now happening regularly.

 

[Dancing Irishman]

I always have a specific thing I'm working on in practice then watch videos for that one thing only - it takes discipline and I'm still not great at it (my arms make so many awkward shapes!) but I trust in the process and the benefit of consistent incremental improvement.

Work with your teacher to make a plan, and it'll make watching the videos much more useful. We all could improve in lots of areas - even pros - and you'll go crazy if you try to fix every opportunity you see on video.

Another caution: you need lots of reps on video to get an accurate assessment of where you're at - it's very possible for something to show up (positive or negative) only 1-4 times out of 10 and if you only see one or two reps on video you might miss it.

 

[BOWEN]

It never looks as good as it feels

 

[flying_backwards]

It never looks as good as it feels

Truth.

And that scares me. Lately in lesson I have asked my teacher to help me recognize for myself what is wrong by how it feels, so I may practice more effectively on my own. Yet I fear my dance feeling as bad as it looks!

My current focus is to consistently reach back with extension, not onto a bent knee (which causes me to back-weight and limit the leader's stride.) When I focus on just this, I can achieve it some of the time. And that feels beautiful. When I focus on other aspects, this creeps back in and oh to see this in video: cringe.

For practice, very short clips of one action with immediate viewing and repetition has helped. I suspect this is what those Latin dancers do with the mirror. For Standard we need video.

 

[Miss Silly]

All of the above

We've also started to video more regularly and it really has helped, as painful as it is LOL!

 

[BOWEN]

Truth.

And that scares me. Lately in lesson I have asked my teacher to help me recognize for myself what is wrong by how it feels, so I may practice more effectively on my own. Yet I fear my dance feeling as bad as it looks!

My current focus is to consistently reach back with extension, not onto a bent knee (which causes me to back-weight and limit the leader's stride.) When I focus on just this, I can achieve it some of the time. And that feels beautiful. When I focus on other aspects, this creeps back in and oh to see this in video: cringe.

For practice, very short clips of one action with immediate viewing and repetition has helped. I suspect this is what those Latin dancers do with the mirror. For Standard we need video.

I'm a standard dancer, LOL. It always felt so well as if we were traveling so much and the frame is stick straight, but looking at the video~~~ I'm not sure how much progress I've made since being a newbie

 

[SwingingAlong]

When I first started taping my lessons, it was easy to see what needed work. Then it got to the point where I couldn't see much wrong, yet I knew there must be..... so I had a coaching session, and I learnt that I was backweighted some of the time. So I have been working on that by strengthening my standing leg, so I don't fall off it. But, it is really hard to figure out what is wrong if you don't know what to look for. BTW my teacher refuses to watch any of the footage, even if it is edited back to a few minutes. That makes me think it must be really bad even though I think sometimes it looks OK

 

[fineshrine]

I find taping my lessons on my phone quite useful. My teachers will sometimes get me to play certain bits of the footage back there and then to double triple check footwork or to show me what my level of performance is like. I try and video all my competitions and will sometimes get notes back from my teachers about that too if I put it on facebook or IG.

I find that I can see what needs to be improved first, but I also like to think of how far I've come and compare it to earlier videos from a month, a year, two years etc ago. I think most of all it's helped my performance level as videoing proves to you that what feels like giving it 100% translate to maybe like 75% - so you have to learn that there is more to give inside you.

 

[IndyLady]

It never looks as good as it feels

I find this goes both ways. Every time I think I have totally rocked something, I watch the video and think, d'oh, that was lame. OTOH, I've had numerous performances that felt subpar or borderline terrible, but when I watch the video, it looks great - clean, smooth, controlled, etc.

What is mind-boggling to me is the gap between what I know about my performance (both how it felt and what can be seen and analyzed on video) and how other people perceive what they saw. A couple Showcases ago, I fell on my bottom during a formation - by far one of the worst moments of my dancing life - but afterwards, many people said they either didn't notice or thought it was part of the choreography (wth?!?!? to both). At the most recent one, I had a routine where my nerves and adrenaline were running too high and I was on the edge of choking (figuratively) during the whole thing, was consistently out of sync with the instructor, definitely not my best performance. And yet people raved about that routine and that's the one they always bring up. (This is one of the philosophical things I've been wrangling with lately, the notion that people don't all observe the same reality and even when the truth is obvious, apparently sometimes it isn't).

Argh.

 

[Loki]

Visual perception is supposedly affected by many internal filters - like when you have a headlight out on your car and you suddenly see one-eyed cars everywhere.

I've wondered about love/infatuation. At first she's gorgeous but later she's a beast. What throws that switch? Lol.