When you go to practice, why do you go to practice? For what purpose? I see many students (and professionals) practice for the wrong reasons. To make it “perfect”, or “right”, or to make it all fast or all sharp, are all reasons that will just lead your dancing to become mediocre, boring, and just simply worse. In fitness there is an adage that says “never go to the gym and do the same workout that you did before.” The body and mind adapt fast, even faster than the conscience can monitor it. Repeating the same practice again and again and again will get people nowhere except cement in their bodies the same mediocre, boring, and often just wrong technique.
Some how by practicing the same thing the same way all the time, magically one day *poof*, you'll be a great dancer? I don't think so. Martha Graham said “it takes ten years to make a dancer.” And Malcolm Gladwell backs that up in his book “Outliers” – it takes 10,000 hrs (about 10 years) of study of something to become and expert at it. But it takes good use of that time. As Steve McConnell puts it, “10 years of the same 1 year of experience repeated does not make 10 years of experience.”
No worries. For years I practiced the wrong way and I didn't realize how much I was wasting my time for so long.
Never practice the same routine twice the same way.
“Consistency is the death of good acting.” (Micheal Shurtleff, Audition) and consistency is the death of good dancing.
Choose a reason to practice each time. Plan it out. Plan for variety, plan for growth and learning. Take what ever you can from any subject you can.
- for relaxation
- for speed
- for stretch
- for mental focus
- for connection with partner
- for connection with audience
- for owning space
- for a laban dynamic
- for an emotion
- for musical variety / rhythmical challenge
- for discovery
- for phrasing
- for rhythm
- for space changes
- for direction
- for mistakes
- for focus
- for theatrical focus direction (past/present/future)
- for balance
- for shape
Further Reading…
 | Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part |
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