Mastering the Beat: Essential Rhythm Tips and Building Strong Foundations for Beginner Dancers
Once upon a time lived a man. He loved dance so much, but dancing in front of others left his knees shaking and his body petrified and stiff. Then he began practicing the foundations of dance, hip hop, and rhythm. From that day forth he no longer feared judgement in the light that his dancing was horrible. He embraced the eyes surrounding him with energy of lightness and joy, knowing it was because his dancing skills were now intentional and firmly built on a strong foundation.
Thank You for joining me for this very short story time! haha
My name is Melvin AC Howell and I’m actually the man in this story (TRUE STORY BTW). Although Dancing is so much fun to me and always has been, I couldn’t stand the thought of being judged, knowing that I wasn’t the best and as I got older that self conscious mentality only got heavier. So I spent time learning the basics and foundations, in order to grow my confidence, skill, and ability to grow my dancing abilities.
Thus, I’m here as your shortcut to becoming a better and more confident dancer!
Today’s focus is steps to becoming a better more confident dancer with dance and rhythm foundations:
STEP #1: Enjoy The Process
IF YOU AREN’T ALLOWING YOURSELF TO ENJOY THE PROCESS of growing your skills in dance, you will most likely end up stressing yourself out and never getting past where you are now. Nor will you ever get past your “performance anxiety”, which ultimately would allow you the internal liberation to externally express yourself freely through dance, triggering growth, improvement, and confidence in dancing.
ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE BAD AND RECOGNIZE THAT IT’S OKAY TO BE A STUDENT AND NOT THE PROFESSIONAL!
In short what I’m saying to YOU is: DON’T RUSH THE PROCESS! Be mediocre at first. Embrace it.
If you follow this first step, you wont be the beginner for very long.
STEP #2: learn the basics and foundations
Below I’ve attached Links for follow-along tutorials so you can see and get a literal feel for the beginner foundations I’ve listed below: In my beginner Hip Hop Foundations Package I go into more depth and detail surrounding these foundations, but this will definitely get you off to a good start!
By learning these basic foundations for beginners, practicing them, drilling them, and eventually mastering them you will both sense and physically feel your confidence and dance skills improving.
IN CONCLUSION, by starting at step #1 you’ll begin to open up and let go of the insecurities of being in the beginning stages, which is 100% necessary in order to begin working towards becoming a better and more confident dancer! By then moving onto Step #2 you’ll begin building the basic foundations that will ultimately lead to your reassured confidence in that you’re not a “terrible, dorky, and mediocre” (because these are terms I so often hear my clients and students so frequently use to describe themselves, outside of claiming to have “Two left feet“) dancer anymore. These first two steps are the recipe to starting you off and helping you reach the milemarker of being able to go out dancing, no matter whether at a bar or a wedding, and be able to liberatingly dance knowing that at the very least you are purposefully and intentionally moving and dancing on beat.