By Nichelle Suzanne<\/p>\n
Dance teachers say and do some crazy things (like tell you a few little white lies!), but even their strangest sayings are meant to help you become a better dancer.<\/p>\n
From using oxymorons to requests that seem impossible (\u201cclose your ribs\u201d sound familiar?!), here are eight odd things you may have heard your dance teacher say:<\/p>\n
\u201cGet out of the mirror!\u201d Spending too much time looking at your own reflection in the mirror? Your teacher is going to call you out if it\u2019s starting to affect your dancing \u2026 and not in a good way. Here are a few tips on how to use the studio mirrors to your advantage and how to avoid common reflection-gazing pitfalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet your eyes off the floor.\u201d No, your eyeballs aren\u2019t rolling around at your feet. Your posture and stage presence will be better if you look up and out while you dance\u2014especially if your choreography includes pirouettes and other intricate turns.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose your ribs.\u201d If your dance teacher is talking about your ribs (not the food!), she is saying your spine is not aligned and it looks like your rib cage is sticking out. Of course ribs don\u2019t close, but this image can help fix your placement.<\/p>\n
\u201cLace up your abdominals.\u201d Engage that core! A strong core not only plays a key role in finding your balance and stability, but can help keep injuries at bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cDance beyond your bubble.\u201d A dance teacher might use this expression or the fancier-sounding, \u201cdance outside your kinesphere,\u201d to get you to perform with more confidence, dance bigger or to get your eyes off the floor and project out to an imaginary audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay up in the air. Don\u2019t come down!\u201d If only dancers had that option! Play with the timing or position of your leap so that it looks like you are floating in mid-air for a moment. To master any leap, here are six important elements you\u2019ll need to practice and perfect.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t sit in your heels.\u201d Instead of standing with your weight evenly spread across each foot, your weight is shifting over your heels. If your base is wobbly, it\u2019s more difficult to hold a long balance. Give your ankles some special attention by strengthening muscles that allow for the side-to-side movement of the foot (supination and pronation).<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t think.\u201d Uhh, is this an oxymoron? While you can\u2019t turn off your brain while dancing even if you wanted to, you may be getting so caught up in the details of the combination or worrying about messing up that your dancing is stiff. Try to relax. Dance class is the place for mistakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Nichelle Suzanne Dance teachers say and do some crazy things (like tell you a few little white lies!), but even their strangest sayings are meant to help you become a better dancer. From using oxymorons to requests that seem impossible (\u201cclose your ribs\u201d sound familiar?!), here are eight odd things you may have heard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ballroom-dances","category-dance-lessons"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/norwood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}