09 July 2012

Beyond the Dance Floor.....




Dancing develops an intelligent and aware body and sensible and savvy minds too. Dancing after all  is so much more than mere imitation and mirroring, in fact it is a start to an endless journey of discoveries about the self and the world and the realms in between. As I started sharing my skills in Latin &Ballroom dance forms and its movements I realized that its more about aligning and integrating the body and mind than anything else … Understanding placement techniques helps to move with what you are capable of,and  entices you to explore the beyond.... so what results is an awareness of an expansion in ones capabilities in the process…. 

Learning dance should be unbridled joy in movement not about the old school  patterns of forced turnouts, hyper flexing your muscles to injury perhaps as one grows older…its definitely an organic approach to not muscle in  at the body but to gently coax it to mold to all its capable of and therein lies the joy of learning to dance! This can only happen when the training is done with awareness of what’s happening inside the body at every given time. Empowering the body and mind with a deep understanding of one’s anatomy and integrating the learning in a socio-psychological perspective unique to every learner is the need of the movement. 

Have always believed that partner dancing abilities extend much beyond the performances and stage shows or even just social dancing. In fact as the focus towards the form and learning strengthens, certain amazing traits develop in most good dancers and stay on with them for the rest of their lives. With further practice these traits evolve further with the years and distinguish them from non-dancers.
 You may find that may be a good dancer may not necessarily have the latest software skills but if you are looking at preciseness, punctuality, confidence, poise and presentation, empathy, passion, and structured creativity in your employee, look no further beyond a good dancer as they walk all the talk and that’s a win win situation with grit , determination and healthy mind and body to boot.
Whats more when you learn to dance with a partner, it can develop empathetic awareness, compassion,synchronicity, balance, perception, respect along with time management skills and even  personal hygiene awareness ,relationship management  to name a few! What more many partner dancers are equipped with great leadership skills that are able to strategize beforehand as they have learned to envision a larger picture or at a macro level.

 And besides these qualities I believe that one of most important trait as a dancer is their ability to be in a positive frame of mind enough to look at every dance , as fresh and new and being able to give the person in front of them undivided attention, which itself is of immense value to another being !
Savvy Raj