Anyway, my advice is to either: 1. Take dance lessons. 2. Take music lessons. 3. If you have no time/money/commitment for lessons, frequently surround yourself with music and videos of people dancing. I think musicianship is a key to becoming a respected dancer. It's great if you hit all the moves, but with musicianship, or the passion for music, you can incorporate your personality into it, making other people watching your dance attracted to your character. Listening to music helps you - you can pick out little details in songs you frequently listen to (for my case SHINee haha.) Those little things you pick out that you like will be the things you keep hearing and listening for in the song. The "thing" can be an instrument, a chord, or something that just sounds weird. You can do the same thing with dance videos: keep watching the same video of people dancing (preferably "good" dancers) and pick out little things you like about their style.
This step may seem completely out of context of becoming a good dancer, but I think it helps. It helps to know what kind of a music person you are. If you don't have passion for music, then dancing will become really hard.
Now for the actual dancing part: it's hard to determine who is a good dancer and not. Some people say Michael Jackson is the king of pop, and essentially the king of dance. Others see that as junk. It really goes down to who YOU think is a good dancer - and once you found what a "good" dancer it, that's probably the style you like, and the style you should try. Ballet and Jazz and Modern and Tap are all under the category "dance" but they are different. One may fit you well while the other won't.
My advice is to try ballet. Although people think it's "too girly and all tutus" it's actually really helpful in building a strong basis for basic body movements. First of all, it gives you great posture - an instant plus to making you look nice while dancing. Would you want to see a dancer with his/her head hanging down and his/her back hunched up? It would look ugly (I believe everyone would think that.) Ballet also would give you the flexibility needed to dance. It's important to be flexible, so you can move your limbs without looking stiff and awkward.
It's hard to find ballet lessons, and it's hard to start up ballet if your older than 16 or so. So try modern or jazz, a "less formal" way of ballet yet it's along the same lines of "making your posture pretty." it's important to hit the dance moves well, but also to look nice while dancing the moves.
for the dancing - i think you're talking about hip-hop, or the dance seen in the kpop scene? if you look at the boy/girl groups out there closely, you'll notice that not all are good dancers - heck, some even suck. (i can name a few but that's only my opinion.) but what makes them look like they prefect the moves is their stage presence, costume/lighting/makeup, unique dance moves, and the live atmosphere. Most of these artists, even when dancing, are performing - acting out by dancing.
I would say it's a great way to start dancing by copying what the kpop (or any artists') dance by looking at their "dance only" mv's or live performances. I always mirror (flip the image) and slow down my videos to learn them. But don't take this as a way to become an actual dancer.
My advice would be to take a look at taemin. yeah yeah he's known as the dancer of shinee since he can do all that pop and lock. it's incredible he can do that - but i don't think that he's a good dancer because of his pop and lock. If you look at fancams of live performances of taemin dancing to anything - lucifer, hello, ring ding dong - he "plays around" with the beats with his body - it seems like his body just automatically moves to the music. He is one with the music. that's musicianship.
I am pretty sure taemin has not taken ballet or other classical dance lessons. yet his musicianship (his love for music) allows him to move freely, the way he wants.
finally, try and tape record yourself and watch how you dance. you may seem to not have energy because 1. you aren't comfortable with the moves, 2. you're trying too hard, 3. you're not having fun while dancing. don't dance if it's a burden to you.
SUMMARY
-it's best to take dance lessons to become a better dancer, overall
-know which style of dance you like to watch/imitate - try and practice that style as frequently as you can
-listen to lots of music
-watch lots of videos of people dancing
-tape record yourself dancing, watch it and critique it.
-go over the moves many times to get it into your body
-don't give up! practice takes a long time.
-and have fun. if dancing isn't fun, its probably not the right thing for you.
Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to ask more questions.
Best,
Jin
No comments:
Post a Comment