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Dance in a Year

danceinayear.com

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21–30 of 78 posts

Re: Dance in a Year

#21

Post by viraptor »

andrewingram wrote: post #12

I started doing Salsa over a year ago, and more recently Bachata. Probably the single best scary decision I've ever made. It's my view that when you're dancing, I mean really dancing, everything else just fades away. It's just you, the music, and if it's a partner dance, your partner. It's practically a form of meditation. Probably one of the ultimate cures for depression.

You also get an instant friendly community in pretty much every bigger city if you dance something popular (like Salsa). This is great when traveling.

Re: Dance in a Year

#23

Post by johnchristopher »

> I don't practice every day because I'm disciplined. I practice every day because I'm obsessed. I love dancing and my body craves it. If I didn't have this raw hunger, there's no way I would've had the discipline to practice every day.

Oh, come on. Enough with the personal development/startup advice bullshit habit of redefining every word to make a point.

Especially when two lines of text later you can read: "If you practice something every day, you're guaranteed to get good at it."

Obsession is a mental activity that consumes people. Discipline to act on this obsession often translate into improvement in the physical world but obsession and motivation alone don't make it. Discipline which brings continuous repeat of the activity is the source of improvement.

Nice story though :)

Re: Dance in a Year

#24

Post by johnchristopher »

JonnieCache wrote: post #17

Or you could just, y'know, dance. However you want. Like children do, before we tell them they should be ashamed. "Dance like no-one's watching" is really easy to do when you're on your own. But this seems good too. EDIT: upon reading this again I realise it's a pretty worthless and stupid thing to say, but I can't really delete it now because someone's replied. Sorry people.

Those "we" that tell others they should be ashamed are still a PITA. They are the one preventing others to dance however they want.

Re: Dance in a Year

#26

Post by danso »

[deleted] wrote: post #25

[deleted]

One of the takeaways from the OP is that it's not either -or...the important thing about practice is that it is continuous, even if just 10 minutes on some days. Can you really say that your programming will suffer if you spend 10 min doing something else? I think it's well accepted that pouring time into one pursuit does not result in linear improvement

Re: Dance in a Year

#27

Post by igvadaimon »

andrewingram wrote: post #12

I started doing Salsa over a year ago, and more recently Bachata. Probably the single best scary decision I've ever made. It's my view that when you're dancing, I mean really dancing, everything else just fades away. It's just you, the music, and if it's a partner dance, your partner. It's practically a form of meditation. Probably one of the ultimate cures for depression.

I also suggest trying Kizomba. Whole new interesting experience.

Re: Dance in a Year

#29

Post by sammyo »

In addition to the specific type of dance, also take ballet technique classes. While it's unlikely to reach a performance level of ballet in one year the core physical habits that are trained carry over to all types of dance. Check the resume of any of the pros or contestants on the various tv competitions and you'll see ballet training.

But don't worry, the 10k hours rule is certainly in effect buy it really does not take a full year to get great results and have fun, just dance anywhere you can! Dance like no one is watching. Just Dance.

Re: Dance in a Year

#30

Post by sreyaNotfilc »

Her post is spot on. Daily practice does pay off and can work for any discipline.

I often say this to my guys whenever they ask me how I'm able to write code so fast and elegantly. Back story, I'm much younger than they are (29 as opposed to 35+). I was decent at writing software, but still wasn't that great. I'm a lot better than I am two years ago, but it was the result of learning little things everyday.

There's a fundamental to doing very well at something.

1) Know where you want to go 2) Spending time with your goal

Its exactly like a kid who wants to be a pro baseball player. He just doesn't think he can do it. He has posters of his favorite player in his room. Has his favorite team's hat on. Never leaves home with out a ball and a glove. Learns the lingo. Mimicks his favorite players' batting stance and throwing motion (on and off the field). Looks up stats. Looks up tutorials and common practices (for in game and for training). Oh and watches the games.

Its all about putting yourself in that world. A lady in a recent TED talk mentioned that you should "Fake it until you become it", not "Fake it until you make it". Its the embodiment. If you want to be great at dance, just start dancing. Same for sports, politics, medicine. ANYTHING! Spend time in your chosen field, even if its for 10mins a day. You'd be surprise how much you'd grown.

Many people cannot get out of their daily routine. So they are experts of just living. But one can only imagine how amazing it is to change things up. A whole new world opens up. And to me, that's fantastic!

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