What are the technical fundamentals of dance I should practice?

February 11, 2013 7:42 PM

What are the "Hanon Piano Exercises" of dance? That is, what are technical drills I should do briefly every day to become better at dancing?

Whenever I tackle a new skill I generally like to start with the technical fundamentals and drill and drill and drill. When I took piano lessons I had this book of scales I had to do every day to get my fingers comfortable with the various movements they'd be making when playing real pieces. When I started to take up ping pong, I would stand at the table for an hour and serve, serve, serve to try to get the motion down.

So what would the equivalent be for dance? I'm in my 20s, male, and currently a terrible dancer. I think I could probably improve my rhythm and my flexibility at the very least.

Ideas for things I'm looking for:

* Play songs and tap my foot to them on the on-beats, then the off-beats, alternate tapping my foot and clapping.

* With music playing work on moving my hands independently to my feet, say step on every beat, hands go out once per measure.

* Count along with a song and try to identify the time signature.

* A certain stretch which would help me be more flexible in a way that's helpful for dancing.

* Rubbing my head and patting my stomach.

* A progression of movements to practice repeatedly - twist head, lift shoulders, sway hips, tap foot.

I dunno, those kinds of things. Little drills and techniques I could work on as building blocks before I even get to learning real dance.

As for styles -- I'm open to anything really. Realistically, I'd probably most likely dance hip-hop or techno-dancey styles if I went out to club with friends, but I'm open to more technical drills, say for ballet, because I think mastering movements in any way would be helpful.

posted by losvedir to health & fitness (7 answers total)

If you want to do hip-hop, you need to learn how to isolate parts of your body - i.e. just move your ribcage or your hips. I used to spend hours in the mirror shifting my ribs front, right, back, left, over and over until I could do a roll. I also taught myself (painstakingly) how to do a body roll/wave this way.

If you pick up a basic ballet DVD or find some videos online, a lot of what you'll learn is basic barre drills.
posted by radioamy at 8:04 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

Tapping feet and clapping is ok, but try to do more exercises that move your whole body. E.g. step taps (step to one side, tap the free foot, step to the other side, tap, repeat). Try it with different body movements and different music, and get into it; don't just do boring steps.

Another thing I like doing that is non-style-specific is standing on one foot and seeing how many different balanced shapes I can make with my body (hint: if something goes out to one side an equivalent amount of weight has to go out to the other side.) Balance is important.

Posture is also important, and a lot of us hunch over computers these days. When I started dancing, I spent a few months stretching my neck out by laying flat on the floor because I had horrible forward head posture. Don't hurt yourself or try to force things into place before they're ready.

One of my dance teachers really likes having people do a James Brown-ish warm-up exercise that's hard to describe exactly - basically you alternately use the toe and heel of each foot to scoot to the side. Requires coordination.

Clapping to pop/rock/jazz/etc. music is generally done on every even beat (2, 4...) although you can do what you want for exercises.

Honestly, although it's ultimately all moving your body, different dance forms use different movements, and you develop style- or move-specific "muscle memory." Dance also has quite a learning curve and the exercises that seem relevant change over time.

If you want to do hip hop, you'll probably improve the fastest by doing hip hop, not ballet. I say this as someone who likes variety, freestyling, and multiple dance forms - you can learn a lot by cross-training in the long run, but you'll improve the fastest especially in the short term by just doing what interests you the most. You can spend hours practicing a ballet plie and still not have a clue how to do charleston. If you live in at least a small city there are probably some adult hip-hop or other dance classes in your area.
posted by pengale at 8:26 PM on February 11

The zumba instructional dvd breaks down many latin dancing moves into their constituent components and has you repeat them several times. It's very helpful to see how an intricate looking move is composed of basic steps and motions.
posted by tatiana131 at 8:49 PM on February 11

Do people still do dance aerobics? That seems like a good way to start.
posted by amtho at 10:09 PM on February 11

I (also a male in his 20s) have taken ballroom dance lessons for the last year. While the studio I joined doesn't seem to do drills like you mention, they are aware of them. One of my lessons involved a 'pop and lock robot' dance which was all about introducing isolations and how to move your body parts independently of each other. If you search YouTube for dance isolations you'll find a treasure trove of stuff you can drill with, such as the robot...

Basically, it looks like you can search YouTube for 'dance isolations x' for any x and get some ideas of isolations for the dance style you want to drill.
posted by Green With You at 10:09 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

Side note: I wholly endorse contacting different dance studios in your area and finding out what they offer related to what you're interested in. While my studio is focused on ballroom dance they are open minded. Some stuff you might not (necessarily) associate with ballroom is a full part of their curriculum (salsa for example). A month ago I overheard an instructor talking to a student about teaching him breakdancing. Another instructor teaches ballet on the side and I'm pretty sure she's mentioned hip-hop a time or two and was the one to go over the pop and lock robot routine with me and some other students during a group lesson. During other group lessons they've introduced Native American dance, Greek dance, medieval dance (I think it was a Pavane which Wikipedia suggests is actually Renaissance), some James Brown thing, and others.

Basically, most professional dance instructors know a lot about dancing. They teach dance during the week and on the weekends they like to go out to some local joints and dance there. The instructors I know would be happy to focus on what you're interested in and I doubt there's many reputable studios that would be different.
posted by Green With You at 10:37 PM on February 11

There's a lot of variety between dances, but here are some foundations:

* Moving to foot positions. Practice stepping from first to second, second to first, first to fourth, fourth to second, first to fifth, etc.

Moving to foot positions quickly becomes stylized based on the dance you're doing. If you want to do rumba, you'll practice rumba walks for hours. Foxtrot has its own method of moving. West coast swing is different yet. If moving to foot positions is your scale, then doing walks in different dance styles is the equivalent of practicing scales in different keys.

* Rhythm units. Taking steps as step-hold, hold-step, step step, triple step (downbeat & upbeat), syncopated triples (& downbeat upbeat), kick/tap/hold ball-change (no weight change on downbeat & upbeat), quad rhythm (& downbeat & upbeat). This is practicing your scales are different tempos, with mixes of 16th notes, 8th notes, and quarter notes.

* Spins. If you want a rich dance vocabulary, you should practice pivot turns, chase turns, chaines turns, spiral turns, and pirouettes. Again, the execution of the spins can be stylized based on the specific dance, but the core technique remains the same.

* Isolations. Body isolations are tremendously important as a learning tool. Some dance forms use isolations on their own (e.g., hiphop, dubstep); others integrate the isolations into their movements (e.g., cha cha uses a rib isolation on the side together side motion). Isolations can include head, shoulders, ribcage, hips, knees, and lots more.

* Arm motions. Arms can go in lots of directions, with lots of different kinds of energy. You can move in a sudden or sustained manner, with a firm or fine touch, and go directly through the space or be flexible (there's 8 combinations to start you off). If you want to be a modern/lyrical dancer you should learn how to move the rest of your body with all of these qualities too, but if you learn to use those combinations in your arms it will be wonders to finish your look.
posted by philosophygeek at 9:31 AM on February 12