The Dance Routine Corner
Learning to dance? This site will help you with advice on learning dance routines and new choreographies.
With you on your journey to becoming a great dancer.
Help!
Common problems and topics covered when it comes to learning a dance routine, new steps and performing.
What Should You Do If A Routine Contains Moves From Other Dance Styles?
It is entirely possible that you could be learning a dance routine and right in the middle of it the teacher or choreographer will drop in a move from a completely different dance style.
For example you could be doing a jazz class and the teacher might decide that she feels like putting a popping move into the routine.
So what you should do? It's possible that you may never have done the other style of dance the move comes from ever before.
When this happens it can be a bit of a surprise. However it is best to treat it as just another move in the routine.
Sure the styling of the move will probably be different as it comes from another style, but thinking of it as something from 'over there' does not help you to learn it.
Here it will probably become more important to hear what the teacher has to say. At certain points in the class you may be confident and just need to listen and recreate the movement, but when moves from other styles pop up you'll need to pay close attention.
Also watch to see how the teacher does the move. While they may not be an expert in the other style themselves they will probably know how to do the moves they've included well and want it performed a certain way.
Also when practising over the routine, you may want to spend more time on these new moves as you will be less familiar with them.
If the teacher uses moves from other styles often in their routines, it can be a good idea to do a few classes and educate yourself better about the other styles. Then you can do any routines containing these moves or techniques much better.
It is actually not that uncommon for dance routines to contain moves from more than one style. If this isn't something you like then it is up to you to find teachers that do routines purely in those styles you like as these exist as well.