Mistakes Dancers Often Make

Dancing is Hazardous to your health!

With that said here are some things to watch out for. The mistakes dancers often make:

1. Dancers work under too much pressure and are overworked. Injuries can be prevented by allowing sufficient rest in your schedule to prevent fatigue. Appreciate rest and relaxation.

2. Dancers do not give enough consideration to their psychological needs alongside their physical ones. Dancers need to learn how to relax and pace themselves. Allow time for rest. Manage time and stress. Dance is very competitive and this leads to great stress. If tension is held in the body, flexibility may be affected unless counter measures are put into place. Know your physical and mental limitations. Know your boundaries. Know thyself!

3. Dancers do not pay enough attention to the flooring and space. You need to make the people hiring you be aware of the complications of working in detrimental space. Plus, they need to understand your needs and why you need specific things. They are not performers and therefor are not aware at all. To ask is not being demanding it is being realistic to your needs. This refers to everything from floors, staging, dressing rooms and rest rooms etc. Take control of your surroundings and your life.

4. Most dancers do not breathe properly. Dancers ar not generally known for their aerobic fitness. With insufficient oxygen in the lungs, lactic acid can accumulate causing fatigue or aching and cramping muscles. Good breathing techniques can aid in the proper execution of dance movements. It can add dynamics and a pleasing quality to the upper body. Remember even though you are a dancer, you are a person and people breathe. Breathing can also add the emotional context you are looking for. Breathe!

5. As a dancer you need to learn how to learn. You learn by following a series of steps. First you repeat movement taught in class. You repeat them technically correct. You then learn how to do the movements with a minimal amount of muscular contraction and tension to reproduce the movement required. You need to make the movement look easy. By eliminating excessive tension the movement becomes ingrained in the muscle memory. Rehearsals can be much more intense than actual performances. This is due to the constant repetition to do something better or to fix a movement that is not correct.

You need to be a quick study, not only to keep up in class and with other dancers but to avoid overuse injuries that a very common in professional dancers. Dancers must learn their own natural learning style and make use of all their senses. Visualization can also be a very useful skill. Strengthening exercises are very important before performances.

This article is sponsored by medical case study.