When it comes to dancing there is a popular myth out there that “You either have it or you don’t”. After teaching dance for 15 years I can assure you that just isn’t true. Anybody can learn to dance. In fact step one is letting go of any fear or anxiety that you can’t do it. This means having faith in something you don’t fully understand yet…your natural body smarts or physical intelligence. Everyone’s got it but for most it’s sound asleep. It may take a while to wake up but if you stick with it you will be pleasantly surprised by just how smart your body is.

Step two is accepting that you are going to be bad at dancing before you are good.  We are taught to avoid failure in school. In dancing the more and faster you fail the quicker you develop the awareness, strength and coordination to do the moves. So take the pressure off and just have fun making a mess of things while you’re learning. You actually learn much faster and more importantly you learn how to learn because you’re mentally open to all experiences good and bad.

Dancing is Flying

Step three is committing to a consistent practice schedule with a good teacher. Spaced repetition is the mother of learning. Whether it’s once a week or once a day the key to having success is to practice a little bit at a time over a long period of time with an attitude of faith, fun and focus on how great it will feel to be a good dancer. Believe me it’s worth it. Dancing is like flying without wings.