Every type of dance has its own identifiers…
The music, the rhythm, the timing.
Moves and combinations of moves.
But the real essence of a dance is not steps or moves.
It’s more than that.
Steps can look generic and soulless.
Moves can be mechanical, and don’t make much sense without a musical context.
But the thing that transforms these steps and moves into a real dance,
The thing that identifies one dance from another…
It’s the quality of the movement.
The flavour.
It’s how you, as an individual, feel and respond to the music.
It’s how you react to the rhythmic patterns in the music.
How you dance with every cell of your body – not just your feet.
It’s how the melody moves you, before you move yourself.
Dance styles originated because at some point, someone felt that THIS was the best way in movement terms, to most fully express how that song or that genre of music felt to them.
And how they could most fully engage all their senses in a pleasurable way in the process.
The steps and moves evolved from that interpretation.
But they weren’t the whole dance.
So trying to learn a dance mechanically through steps, moves and counts only gives you a parody of the real thing.
The real feeling and flavour comes from the ability to move any part of your body you choose to the part of the song that most resonates.
You can only do this well when you become truly free in your own mind and body.
Shake off the inhibitions, increase range of motion, and learn to isolate individual movements through fine motor control.
So don’t be fooled.
The steps are part of the dance but they are not all of it.
You need a framework to learn the dance, but you also need freedom to experience it fully.
