I think we’ve all experienced the feeling at one time or know someone who has the feeling a lot of the time of being afraid to dance. Sure, we laugh it off and say that it was just that particular circumstance or there weren’t enough people on the floor or the music didn’t move us etc. etc.
But the fact is a lot of times dancing doesn’t seem like that great an idea.
I’ve got students who take lessons every week to learn whole foxtrot, swing, Argentine tango, salsa, samba and hustle syllabi and still if there aren’t a few people on the floor or if they’re tired or if the music isn’t just right it is hard for them to get out there and just do it.
I’ve had students tell me that they feel like they’re “performing” for others when they get on a less crowded dance floor and that feels like pressure and heaven knows we’ve all got enough of that in our lives!
I’ve had students tell me that they’ll get out there when they “get better”.
I’ve had students tell me that there’s no place to go dancing anyway so they’ll just dance at their lesson and call it a day.
All perfectly acceptable excuses… but do they work in the long run??
Ultimately I believe that the more you dance, the more you start to understand it and feel comfortable within your body doing it.
In this technological day and age we’re up in our heads a lot of the time. Getting into your body and doing something that uses your body is not exactly second nature for us.
Sure, it is scary getting out there with just a few steps and techniques under your belt and you need to accept that you will have a few scary feelings and work through them or the next time it will be even harder!
Give yourself permission to feel a bit awkward during your dance lesson… on when you go out social dancing… or even practicing on your own.
It’s not going to feel “perfect” right away and that’s ok!
Dare to Dance and see what happens… you never know… you might be the a secret swinger or a fabulous foxtrotter in the making, but you won’t know until you at least give it some time.