Hello there dancers and welcome back to From The Top! Today we are going to be talking about dealing with your weaknesses as a dancer. Naturally, we always love to focus on the things that we do well. The amount of turns we can do, our bodily strength, how high our leaps may be, etc, etc. But, what about the things that could use a little work? A lot of negative connotation comes with the word “weakness”, but that doesn’t have to be. Weakness doesn’t mean you’ve failed in one area, while you have succeeded in others. And truth be told, every dancer has their set of weaknesses. The important thing is learning how to deal with them, which is exactly what we will be doing today! So, grab a snack and let’s get right into today’s blog post!
Step #1
Acceptance
The number one way to get you on the right track to dealing with and strengthening your weaknesses as a dancer is acceptance . As much as we would LOVE to have the ability to do everything perfectly and with ease, that is sadly not reality. It is simply human nature that we will have a set of skills in our profession that need a little extra pruning and by accepting this fact, you put your mental space in the correct place in order for you to go forth and strengthen your weaknesses with positivity and a n open mind . Whatever you accept with positivity comes a lot easier, but whatever you despise with negativity is harder to attain. As I said earlier, every single dancer in the entire world has their list of things that they wish they could do better and by no means does that make you any less of a good dancer. So by accepting our weaknesses with grace, we can allow ourselves to focus on them positively and productively work to reach our goal!
Step #2
Making The Game Plan
Alright, now it’s time to get to work! The next step to strengthening our weaknesses is of course, research . Naturally when going about personal improvement, we have a few questions. “What ways can I improve this area of my dancing?” “What new techniques should I apply to reach this goal?” “What have I not been doing before that I should be doing to eventually better myself in this area?” These and many more are usually questions that come up when working to strengthen our weaknesses. This is where our journey begins! Hop on the web and search for tutorials based on what you are trying to improve. Ask your teacher for some pointer tips for further improvement. You may even be able to find tips for what you’re looking for right here at From The Top! Once you have gathered the information needed, write it down or print the web page and keep the information close to you as a referral point to come back to as you work to meet your goal.
Step #3
Appliance & Diligence
Now that we have the required knowledge that can be used to strengthen the desired area of our training, we move onto step number 3 which is applying the information that we have now acquired and diligently practicing it . The phrase “practice makes perfect” has been around for ages and that’s because it is the undeniable truth. New technical insight and more in depth information on how to strengthen our weaknesses means very little if we do not take the necessary time to put in the work and apply our new findings. By simply putting in 10-15 minutes of practice a day, though it may be a short amount of time, it’s really all it takes to see a huge difference. A little bit of practice a day always adds up to big results in the end. So let’s put in that work!
    
Step #4
Enjoy The Process Of Becoming Stronger
And finally, I want to encourage you to always enjoy the process. Having an area, or maybe even areas, where we aren’t at our strongest in ability can be a bit frustrating because we always want to be the best dancer that we can be. However , please understand that no one is perfect and Rome was definitely not built in a day. You must always remember that to almost everything there is a process and a journey. Think about all of the things that you do well. I’m sure that you had to work just as hard to reach those achievements as well. And while some achievements may come quicker (or slower) than others, they are all worth every bit of time that we invest into them. So, enjoy the journey, go through the process with excitement and celebrate every small bit of progress that you see. Because who knows? By the end of the journey, that very weakness could become your new strength.
Thank you all so much for spending this Friday with us. I know the current time in our world right now is a bit unusual, but I hope we were able to brighten your day with motivation and love for the art of dance. Have a great weekend, everyone and remember…
Keep dancing!
Lexi
FROM THE TOP! 