Becoming a dancer: gotta dance! - factors of becoming a dancer

Dance Magazine, July, 1998 by Linda Hamilton

Do you eat, sleep, and breathe dance? Do you want to become a dancer more than anything in the world? In her new book, Advice for Dancers, Dance Magazine's columnist explains the factors that make a dancer--and how you can choose the most appropriate technique to bring out the true dancer in you. Here's a sneak peek.

Falling in love with dancing is magical It feels predestined, as if you were meant to be a dancer first, then a human being. But why? is it your temperament, your character, your physiology? I get letters all the time from frustrated dance students who don't know what it takes to "become" a dancer.

WHAT MAKES A DANCER

Many factors are important in dancing, from developing sufficient strength and flexibility to simply executing the steps, If you want to progress, you need to set specific goals and then find the best way to achieve them. But first, it's important to know where you stand on the following points: Do you have a sense of "calling" (c passion for dance)? Do you have kinesthetic intelligence including athleticism, grace, and talent)? What kind of dance training will you have (consider the age at which you start, the number of classes per week, technique)? Who are your teachers (do you have competent instructors)? What kind of personality and temperament do you have (think about your drive, resiliency, willingness to take risks, and optimism)? Do you have the right anatomy (which is your genetic destiny)?

As you can see, there's a lot more to dancing than just willpower. So let's take a closer look at the various ingredients? that help create the dancer in you.

A SENSE OF CALLING

Your passion for dance is important, because it helps you look beyond the immediate blister or missed social event to a higher couse--becoming a dancer. In many ways, a calling keeps you on track. While your friends are hanging out at the mall, you are on a mission to transform your body into a finely tuned instrument. Dancers who ore wishy-washy about their work rarely succeed, even if they're talented. In foci, many gifted children get distracted by social interests in opalescence. What makes a true believer?

The answer can often be found in early childhood. Many dancers report a crystallizing experience before the age of five that led to a deep commitment to dance. Some of these dancers grew up in families where the arts were a large part of their lives, others had parents who were amateur or professional artists themselves. At some point these children had the good fortune to see a dance performance, hear beautiful music, and--voila! They knew that dancing was it.

This was certainly the case for me MY mother was a violinist and my father pointed portraits, so I was sun rounded by the arts from infancy According to family lore, I announced my decision to be a dancer at the age of two after seeing the Royal Ballet perform. The Sleeping Beauty on television! By age four I was dancing regularly before a mirror at home and giving impromptu performances at New York's City Center theater during each intermission of the ballet!

Early exposure to the arts can make a big impression on children in the formative years, laying the groundwork for serious training. Still, it's possible for people to fall in love with dance at any age--through a touring modern dance troupe, an old Fred Astaire movie, a friend who takes ballet, or simply by serendipity. Students may also develop a passion for dance after the fact. I've known dancers who stopped taking class only to discover that something important was missing; other dancers were inspired when a special dance teacher came into their lives. However it happens, a sense of calling is key to your future success, because it gives you a powerful motivation to dance.

KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE

What makes dancing feel as natural as breathing? According to Dr. Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences, the answer lies in your innate ability to express yourself through movement. This ability, which varies from person to person, occurs along with seven other forms of intelligence: linguistic, logical, musical, naturalist, spatial, and too personal intelligences that help you understand the motives of others and know yourself.

Kinesthetic intelligence allows you to move gracefully, while demonstrating your athletic prowess with variations in speed, force, intensity, and direction. If your capacity is deficient in this area, if you are awkward or clumsy or lack rhythm, dancing is an uphill battle, Although all dancers can improve with hard work and extensive training, your raw physical potential will determine how far you can go in dance. So pay attention to your natural strengths. If these are outside the kinesthetic realm but you have a knock for logical thinking, dance research may be up your alley. Verbal skills, on the other hand, could make you a savvy dance journalist or an advocate for the arts.

DANCE TRAINING

As we've discussed so for, you need to be deeply committed to dance and possess a natural talent for movement in order to excel in the field, The next step in becoming a dancer is to train your body through repetition and practice. One sixteen-year-old girl told me that he had no idea about how much 'dance training to get or at what age to get it. This is a common dilemma for dance students, because each technique has different requirements.