Dancing Skills = Life Skills!
Working at a ballroom dance studio has taught me a lot about how to act when you are dancing, and even rules that spill over into regular everyday life.
While dancing, you must trust your partner. Whether this “partner” is your dance instructor, or someone you are soon getting married to, or someone you’re dating, or a friend, this is a person you must trust. Dancing is something that really sparks that trust. First, because dancing requires physical touch. As you get more involved in your dancing and you begin to progress, trust is important in developing skills and moving forward with improving. This is particularly in reference to lifts, dips, spins, and any other fancy moves that could potentially get messy. This trust allows you to be able to easier achieve success in your dancing because the leader trusts the follower and vice versa. The two people dancing begin to form a well-versed, cohesive unit that will understand how to work swiftly with one another.
Dancing also encourages detail-oriented, positive communication that points out flaws (in a nice, encouraging way), while dually complimenting your partner on what they do well. This will help you figure out what you need to fix, while also helping you to feel confident in what you can do well. These are good traits to have in any aspect of life and open communication will really aid in not only dancing, but in every day situations.
When learning how to dance, you have to learn how to laugh and not take everything all too seriously. People who take dancing too seriously will never have the attitude to learn this wonderful skill in a stress-free, happy way. One of the coolest things about dancing is the fact that it is an exciting activity to learn. Without possessing the skill to not take yourself too seriously, enjoying dancing will be hard because regardless, you will make mistakes. Be willing and grateful to accept and fix those mistakes so you can be better the next time around! As I always like to say, it’s not the end of the world.
Dancing also teaches you your physical limits and mental limits. You need to learn when you need to stop and when too much becomes too much. If you are physically or mentally tired, you inevitably will not be in the best shape to be dancing as when you are at your best. Learning when to say enough is enough is a very important and beneficial thing to keep in mind. Taking care of your mind and body is learned through dance and following the rules of this is important.
While there are many more positive aspects to dancing that can affect your life, these are some of the most important. Dancing is not only beneficial while dancing, but the skills you learn within the studio can really influence other parts of your life and will improve your life.
Dancing Skills = Life Skills!
Article by Shelby.
