I think that at some point we all get to that plateau…..you know the one where you feel like you’re not getting any better, or the one where you feel like you’ve got nowhere else to go. You’re stuck in the same level with the same results every time you step on the floor. Or maybe you feel like you’ve learned it all. (This is the trap to beware of!!) You should never feel like there is nowhere else to go. There is always something you can change, something you can improve, or something you can experiment with. Just because someone’s reached a high level of skill in one dance, doesn’t mean there is nothing left for them to learn or nothing left for them to improve.
Sometimes it takes going to a different instructor so that you can get a different opinion or hear something in a different way. Sometimes it means trying out a different type of dance and challenging yourself to do something new, or revisiting a dance style that you used to do to help inspire you. Sometimes it means not worrying about what level you are at, but just worrying about growing and improving. Sometimes it’s just the challenge of doing a new routine; everyone is different, so there is no right answer. In my mind, one of the best ways to improve your dancing is to try something new – whether it’s a new partnership or a totally new style of dancing.
I know that in the beginning it is sometimes easier to focus on just one dance style, but as you progress, it is important to have other things to draw from. It may give you a new type of arm styling to add, a new understanding of how to make your weight shifts, it may give you new patterns to try in a different dance, or any number of other things. I have known many different kinds of dancers in my day, and many of the higher level dancers are reluctant to try something new because they don’t want to look inferior or bad. I understand completely – no one wants to look bad, but if we never try, we’ll never know what we can do. If we never do anything new, then we become stagnant. Our dancing will never evolve. We should never stop learning…….there is no one who knows everything and can’t learn something. If we can remember this, then we will never be bored or uninspired!
In my mind, the best dancers are the ones who are able to keep their dancing growing and evolving and are able to excel in more than one dance form. So keep working, keep growing, and keep dancing!!
