photo credit: Wendy Piersall

In part 1 of this two-part post I discussed a few very simple strategies that will help you not to lose everything you have learned over the laid back Summers at many dance schools.

This article will focus on what it takes to get yourself into the habit of practicing at home.

Luckily, tap dancers have an advantage when it comes to practicing at home as we require minimal space to work in. Charles “Honi” Coles gained the reputation for having the “fastest feet in tap” after spending a year “woodshedding” in his home!

So here are some strategies that will help motivate you to practice and will ensure that you are receiving high returns on the time invested.

Dance Practice Strategy #1 – Set Up A Place In Your Home To Practice

When you are ready to practice, you don’t want to get out of the notion because of the time it takes to clear and arrange your practice space.

If possible, set aside a dedicated space for practicing your dancing. Make sure this space has everything you need so you can quickly begin practicing. If you require music, make sure you’ve got it right
there. If you use a metronome, make sure its there as well.

This might also be a good place to store your tap shoes and a hand towel.

Having a dedicated space will make it much easier for you to practice and much more likely that you will actually do so.

Start setting up your space today!

Dance Practice Strategy #2 – Set Aside An Official Practice Time

If you don’t set aside time to practice, you won’t.

It’s as simple as that.

You could have the most well organized dance space in your county, but if you never commit to a time, it will lay fallow, collecting dust.

What’s important is that you commit to a time and hold yourself accountable. A regular schedule is best as it will aid you in forming a habit of practicing dance.

If like watching “So You Think You Can Dance”, you may want to schedule your practice time before or after the show. Watching it could either be a reward, or a motivation for practicing!

Dance Practice Strategy #3 – Don’t Just Focus On Your Strengths

Sometimes when I get into my practice space I find that I have a tendency to avoid the uncomfortable work that usually leads to growth in favor of rehashing what I am already good at.

To get the most out of the time invested, it is imperative that you work on those things that are difficult. In fact, there seems to be an
inverse relationship between how much fun something is to practice and how helpful it is for perfecting technique.

Stated another way: Often the more boring the exercise, the more effective it is.

An hour spent working on shuffles in tap is likely to pay higher dividends than an hour spent working on Wings. I don’t know why that is, but it has always been that way for me.

In fitness people always say, “No Pain, No Gain!”

In the quest to preserve & develop your dance skills you must find a way to strike a balance between pleasure and pain to make for a fun and beneficial experience.

Dance Practice Strategy #4 – Set An Ambitious Goal

Don’t just practice aimlessly.

Every time you enter your practice space, have a goal in mind. This will add focus to your practice session and help to keep you motivated. For each session let your goal be significant but attainable.

Don’t set a goal of achieving the “5-sound wing” unless this is realistic for your situation.

In addition to setting goals for each practice session, you should also set them for the entire Summer.

Ask yourself, what is the single most important new thing you wish to achieve this summer. If it is, in fact, your goal to achieve the 5-sound wing this summer, what you do in each practice should reflect that goal.

Just be sure you’ve got the 3-sound one first!

Good luck and have a great summer!

For assistance practicing tap techniques, visit eTapDance.com and gain access to instructional tap videos, tap dance lessons, and expert interviews!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 7:11 am and is filed under Tap Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.