Tips for Practising Dance at Home!

Whether in quarantine or not, every dancer has heard their teacher call out, “Don’t forget to practice at home!” at the end of class.

While we are currently required to stay indoors, we have never had so much time to practice our dance moves, and it’s never been more important to maintain our skills at home.

So, we’ve put together a list of tips to help you (or your child) make the most of practising dance at home!

Tip #1: Set yourself some goals

• Think about what skills you want to achieve and write a list.
• Then, break it down! You can write weekly goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals.
• Taking small steps each week toward your big goal will help you achieve it.

Tip #2: Designate a practice area

• Find a place in your house, or backyard, and make it your practice area.
• Don’t worry if you don’t have much space – work with what you have!
• Don’t forget that a little bit of practice is better than none at all.
• There are no mirrors on stage! Even though mirrors help us see our bodies dancing, sometimes it’s good to practice without the mirror too, so don’t worry if you’re just in your lounge room.

Tip #3: Have a designated dance practice time

• This could be any time of the day, but have a consistent time dedicated to practising dance skills and reaching those goals!
• A schedule can help keep you accountable and can remind you to practice each day.

Tip #4: Visualise your dance moves

• Sometimes running through the steps without using our body can help memorise them.
• Sit down with the music, and visualise yourself performing the dance to best of your ability, before you get up and practice.
• This way you can remember the steps and the corrections given by your teacher by concentrating on the images you see, not just the way it feels.

Tip#5: Video yourself

• If you have videos of your dances in class, watch them first.
• Watch yourself and think about anything in the video you could improve.
• You can also film yourself when you are practising at home and follow the same steps.
• You can even use the ‘slow motion’ feature on some devices to really take a close look and apply corrections.
• Don’t forget to pick out things you did in the video that you liked too!

Practising at home can help make sure that when we do get back in the studio, we are still strong and flexible.

But even when class is back to normal, practising at home is what will help students enhance skill development and excel in dance class.

Follow the above steps to improve home dance practice, and don’t forget to tag Dance Factor in your posts!

Instagram: @dancefactor

Facebook: Dance Factor by Jessica Walker