To be fair, I'd probably listen to this guy's advice no matter how trivial it is.
You know how teachers like to give trivial or overly simplified advice from time to time? Yeah.
Being on the receiving end is baffling, frustrating, and limiting. But muddled as the advice is, usually they have an actual point.
This post explores a collection of 10 particularly useless pieces of advice.
I’ll explain why each piece of dance advice is confusing and give “Possible Translations.” These are examples of what your teacher may be trying to express.
If you get these pieces of advice and are confused, mentally translate. In some instances you may need clarification from the teacher.
Full disclosure: I personally feel annoyed when I hear advice like this. Perhaps you can be a better student than me and contemplate the meanings behind the words.
Here we go:
Useless Dance Advice #1. “Relax.”
Why it doesn’t work: It’s not specific enough. Relax what? Relax how?
Possible translations: Relax [specific muscle group]. Breathe normally and don’t hold your breath.
Useless Dance Advice #2. “Just have fun.”
Why it doesn’t work: Frankly, the learning process is not always fun. There are many times when you’ll need to keep chugging on in the face of adversity. This is a personality trait called grit, and it’s an extremely important component of your success.
Possible translations: Be okay with making mistakes. Bring a sense of joy into your dancing whenever possible.
Useless Dance Advice #3. “Stop over thinking it.”
Why it doesn’t work: This advice is usually given in slight exasperation or annoyance when you are talking through your ideas and learning process. It can have the effect of minimizing your intellectual capacity and enthusiasm.
Possible translations: Try it and find out if your ideas work. Be okay with making mistakes. Use trial and error to feel out an answer.
Useless Dance Advice #4. “You’ll do fine.”
Why it doesn’t work: We all know we’re going to look at least a little stupid. When a teacher or friend says this, it feels like they are dismissing your fears.
Possible translation: I believe in you, and I won’t judge you for making mistakes.
Useless Dance Advice #5. “The leader leads, and the follower follows.”
Why it doesn’t work: It encourages you to think conventionally about the meanings of “lead” and “follow.” Dance partnership is a two-way communication that is actually quite complex. For example, the leader must learn to be constantly responsive to the follow, and the follow must learn to be fully engaged in the creative process.
Possible translation: Connection will feel more simple and intuitive the more you get the hang of it.
Useless Dance Advice #6. “Turn your brain off.”
This advice is usually given to follows.
Why it doesn’t work: It is literally incorrect. Our brains are actually quite active when dancing, it’s just in a different way. It’s also a bit sexist, isn’t it? Some people feel that followers (who are usually women) shouldn’t be making their own decisions; they should dance on autopilot.
Possible translations: Think about one thing at a time. Focus on the connection. Focus on the music. Lag behind the beat/your partner.
Natural, you mean like how I sit at the computer 8 hours a day?
Useless Dance Advice #7. “Make it more natural.”
Why it doesn’t work: Many of us grew up learning decidedly unnatural movement habits and not doing enough activity. “Natural” doesn’t mean much to culture that sits in front of a computer screen 8 hours a day.
Possible translations: Let your arms swing with the twisting movement of your torso. Practice functional movements (e.g. walking, squatting, jumping) and bring what you learn into your dancing.
Useless Dance Advice #8. “You don’t need the counts, or counting will hold you back.”
Why it doesn’t work: Numbers are the only precise way to express what the rhythm is, and where you are in the song. Counting the rhythm is one of the first things I learned when reading music. Scatting rhythm exclusively is like trying to do math with Roman numerals.
Possible translations: Try to feel the rhythm in your body instead of just your head. Practice scatting to get a more intuitive feel of the rhythm and body movement.
Useless Dance Advice #9. “Listen to lots of music.”
Why it doesn’t work: People without musical training don’t know what to listen for in music. You could listen to thousands of hours of music and still only improve marginally. Plus the word “lots” is misleading. How much is “lots?” If I go social dancing 3 hours a week, am I listening to enough music? (Probably not.)
Possible translations: Learn how to listen to music. Listen to popular songs repeatedly and try to dissect them. Learn AABA and other song structures. Learn to identify different types of music.
Useless Dance Advice #10. “The way to get good at lindy hop is by doing lindy hop.”
Why it doesn’t work: First, not all practice is created equal. Second, there are lots of non-lindy hop things you may need to do to improve, depending on your individual strengths and weaknesses.
Possible translations: Do a lot of high-quality dance practice outside of social dances. Ask a trusted dance teacher for specific advice tailored to you.
But are they 100% useless?
While I like keeping things simple, platitudes obscure meaning. Occasionally, for the right student, these phrases might make perfect sense. More often they are hit or miss, thus resigning them to the “useless” category.
By the way, this post is not intended to disparage dance teachers or others who give you advice. They genuinely want to help you! Some spend long hours working on class material and developing teaching skills.
Even so, not every piece of advice is going to work for you. Meet them halfway and try to get to the heart of what they are saying.
Your turn. Which of the above translations is most valuable to you? Is there another piece of trite dance advice you hear a lot, and how do you translate it?
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my god, Rebecca, I love dis post. (http://tinypic.com/r/29ygldw/6 See how much.)
What a perfect resource, especially for teachers and well-meaning dance friends. I mean like, how often do we try to drag a friend into the dance world and frustrate the hell of of them in well-meaning intentions. How do we so easily forget what it was like to be new? Yaaaay!
And teachers! Teachers should always be looking for better ways to give advice, and learning how to evaluate problems by looking and feeling. Using the same old turns of phrase is, as you say, often useless. It’s too easy and can frustrate students.
Thanks!! I wish I’d had me around to translate when I was new. Heh heh.
Wow, I am so guilty of saying these! Usually to friends I am trying to get into the dance-yikes! I gotta be more specific, or at least be listening to them rather than just offering platitudes.
I think a lot of these could be trying to convey the same things. But I wouldn’t call them useless, necessarily. Advice that falls flat with person A may give person B their big “aha!” moment. In fact, I think teachers should line all of their students up and throw each of these phrases, and more, at them in rapid succession (also, with strobe-lights, if possible) and see which ones stick to whom.
Right on!!!
One variation that fits the exact same bill:
“Just Feel It!”
Probably a combination of points 1-3, but totally worthless as a guide for the dance or the music. If a student felt it already, they would be doing it.
outstanding, and quite help full to me as a remedial swing dance student :D
I’m also guilty of saying some of these phrases from time to time.
It really depends on the classes you’re teaching. If you have students who are not so keen to become superstars and just want to have fun with a group of friends and (maybe) learn something new beside that (what happens a lot), then it often doesn’t make sense to bombard them with some high-class advice, that never gets recognized as such.
I rather save it up for those who can appreciate it!
PS. Rebecca, thanks for mentioning the AABA article.
I like that this article is useful both for new dancers hearing these phrases and seasoned dance instructors. Thanks Rebecca!
One of the more aggravating pieces of advice I’ve received is to “just go for it!” I imagine that they mean either 1) commit to movements so that it’s not confusing for leads or 2) move fully through the movements, but what it always reads to me is THRASH AROUND WILDLY TRYING TO MAKE DANCE HAPPEN ARGHHH!
You’re welcome! It’s an incredibly useful article.
just wanted to say that the skeleton at his keyboard prompted me to sit up straight, after realizing it was exactly how i was sitting while reading this. :)
In year 1, I had lot’s of fun, in part because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I certainly wasn’t relaxed. In years 2-3, I learned how to relax, but falling into patterns and working hard to improve killed a lot of the fun. In years 4-5, I’ve improved a lot, am able to dance more in the moment, and I have just as much fun, sometimes even more fun, when things go wrong. It’s a journey.
Honestly, I don’t think these pieces of advice are at all useless. Overused… maybe. Some of these phrases were my “aha!” moments. Actually.. all of them minus one were my “aha!” moments. These may be oversimplfied but you’re just plain wrong when you say that they are useless.
1. Relax.
Why are dancers told to do this? Because more often than not, people get bogged down in the technical aspect of dancing and they’re movements become very tense while trying to learn. Relaxing makes everything simplier and more natural to both them and their partner.
You say it’s not specific enough, but when I say that I’m not refering to a specific muscle group I’m refering to… well… everything… stop being tense while you dance is exactly what I mean. I can’t just say relax your shoulders and your arm. I have to give the blunt statement of RELAX!! to my partner before I get specific.
It freaking works too. Dancers signifcantly improve everytime I say this to them usually mid-dance.
2. Just have fun.
I think this is a branch off the relaxing thing. It is valid to say this… it calms new dancers down and makes my dancer partner smile when I say this and lets them know I’m not out to judge them. Sure it’s simple and easy, that’s part of the reason I say these things, it’s so that the don’t think I’m some stuck up jerk and so that they are reminded to HAVE FUN!!!
And it works… it’s not, and never has been useless.
3. Stop Overthinking It
It’s amazing how complex Lindy hop seems to a new dancer. People’s minds actually add steps in places they shouldn’t be and ask me questions all the time about things I hardly think about when I dance. They think that I have every breath and slight movement planned out with every partner I dance with. I only say this when I run into rather analytical people who zoom in on footwork. It’s more of a gut response because I want to dance more, and I don’t want to explain every tiny detail of Lindy to someone who doesn’t know the first thing about rhythm. I say this to bring them to a simpler place so that they can get more basics first.
It’s not useless because I don’t want to give advance lessons to begginers. They aren’t ready for that. I want to give them simple things to master so that they can move slowly and get better that way.
4. You’ll do fine.
I say this to a lot of people… not just in dancing. I say it because I’m tired of hearing people complain. This is a totally valid way too say this. Not at all useless.
5. The leader leads, and the follower follows.
Let’s say you run into a couple dancing and they walk up to you for advice, and then you see that the girl is doing all the work while the guy just sits there and goes along with it. He’s obviously not feeling the music, he’s not really listening and it seems like the girl is dragging him to dance. I get tired of this because I see it all the time. It’s not only depressing, it’s impossible to teach them anything because one of them isn’t really there. I use this phrase to get the guy involved more than anything. And I do think conventionally… there is nothing wrong with that.
So again… this phrase is not useless. It actually… works…
6. Turn off your brain.
That phrase is not sexist. And honestly, sexism is retarded, but so is thinking that everything is sexist. Both of those thought processes cloud judgement. Sure it’s false. It’s a way of getting people to think simpler… as are most of these phrases. Guys can follow too.
Not useless
7. Make it more natural…
I agree with you on this one. It’s useless because I never knew what that meant in the firstplace. I honestly don’t understand what natural means these days because is there really anything that isn’t natural in a natural universe? Conversely, is there anything that isn’t unnatural in a universe created by God? The answer is no in both cases…
8. Counting…
Stop counting, start singing. That’s usually what I tell people asking me for advice. I am a musician as well and I never learned to read music. I watch the musicians play or just hear the key and I can play. It wasn’t until someone told me to stop counting that I actually started to get dancing and music.
That was useful for me.
9. Listen to lots of music.
That’s just plain good advice. Not really useless in any fashion. I have no musical training and music still helps me dance. You can learn just by listening you know.
Not useless.
10. The best way to better at Lindy hop is by doing Lindy Hop.
That’s just a simpler version of what you translated. To me, this meant practice. I saw that without someone specifically saying “practice hard!”
Just because you desire a more complex and specific explanation that basically means the same thing these phrases mean does not mean these phrases are useless. These phrases worked for me and on my dance partners. But for advanced dancers, I can understand that they want specifics rather than these simplified platitudes that are meant for begginers.
It’s a hard job being “just plain wrong,” but somebody’s got to do it. ;-)
As I mentioned, platitudes work for some people. And they all have a grain of truth, or I wouldn’t have translated them. It depends on the type of student you’re talking to. For my core audience (budding dance nerds), the explanations in this article are a breath of fresh air.
I’m sorry I’m a bit offended because these have been the most effective things I’ve said to friends of mine who are trying to figure out dancing, and I still would like to say these things to begginers.
I don’t want to be giving advice and get lip or judgement from people who read your article. I’m training to become an instructor and it’s complicated enough already teaching people how to dance and now I can’t say certain phrases because it’s not cool anymore? Sure this might be sound advice but I’m not going to cater to people who refuse to listen because they think they know better. So I will defend my simple platitudes until the death until I can get a better grip on instructing.
A useful rejoinder, Benjamin.
RE: #8. THANK YOU.
SO many people have told me this SO many times and it’s frustrating every time. I am a mathematician and a drummer. Counting makes sense to me. It’s fine if not everyone wants to count (and there are plenty of people that don’t!) but don’t tell me to stop counting. Counts help me to remember choreography and learn new things. I understand the importance of letting go sometimes and I’m certainly not absolutely beholden to my counting, but it’s an incredibly useful learning tool for me.
Overall interesting article.
“stop overthinking it” I actually think is more related to the fact that you cannot get smooth motor coordination when you are too focused on how to move your body rather than just moving your body. For example, if I tell you to really focus on rolling your weight from the outside of your foot to just under the base of your big toe, you’re going to completely change how you walk for the worse. You were probably doing it before. Bringing your attention to that one specific part will reduce all the other things that you were doing naturally (and correctly). Sometimes as dancers we have to try things without focusing on the specific parts to find how it all works together.
“Listen to lots of music” has lots of value. Our brains are amazing pattern recognizers. even if we are not giving full attention to a thing, if we deal with it long enough we do absorb and begin to recognize patterns. I’ve been dancing for about six years and I don’t do much intensive focused music listening, however I’ve got music in the background right now. I can hear a song I’ve never heard before, and can predict where there is likely to be a hit, break, or a crescendo. I could probably be better if I really did intensively listen, but I’ve not found a way to do that which isn’t frustrating to me.
Clever!
By offering up “translations” to the useless advice you have provided 10 solid fundamentally worthwhile thoughts to ponder, but then again you already knew that, did you not?
Thanks
Use less advice: PRACTICE! For me (level sub zero) this is useless advice. Whatever I am taught evaporates instantaneously so I cannot reproduce it in order to practice. It´s like trying to drink water with a fork, or maybe eat a bowl of steam. It may be good advice, but pretty near impossible to comply with.
Another great post Rebecca!
Possible alternative translation for #5: We each have a role to do (lead or follow) and both pieces are important to the partnership – we need to give each other feedback on what we need to make it work. Example: I want to lead you in a straight line, but when I do this you end up turning…..what do you need as a follow in this situation to make it clearer that it is a straight line lead?
Possible alternative translations for #6: Stop judging yourself and keep trying to work on it bit by bit to build confidence and competence.
My all time favourite piece of advice I got from a lead was “you got heavy on your swing outs”, then he proceeded to do a few more and repeat this lovely advice. I stopped him and told him that when you tell a woman she “got heavy”, she looks in the mirror to check out her ass and see how much bigger it got on the last swingout! Then I asked him what he really meant by that term (as a new dancer I didn’t have a clue what heavy meant except as a way of describing my weight) – he then told me I was using my biceps too much making our connection really tense and slow…..now that was something I could do something about (or at least try to do something about – still have to remind myself all the time).
So happy that Mari Mabon Johnson turned me on to this site. For #1 “Relax” I found it helpful when a teacher said to, “relax your skin.” That was a specific enough metaphor I could relate to for “keep a toned but not stiff frame.” For #3 “Stop overthinking it” and the related #6 “Turn your brain off” I’ve found it helpful for myself and others (in dance and non-dance activities) to distract the judgmental and too slow brain. One technique is a mental checklist running continuously from the top of the head to the feet. Though it sounds like brain work it is merely cuing the body to calibrate certain physical performance aspects. A related technique is to more specifically calibrate a single aspect of ones dancing in the form of a mental meter. For example, let’s say your weight needs at various times to be forward, back, or even on your feet. You could be running a mental meter that observes your weighting on a scale from +5 .. 0 .. -5 (toes to flat to heel). Thanks for your good suggestions.