Catching your attention means...

 There is an inherent contradiction in learning to dance. On the one hand, learning to dance means focusing our attention inwards to feel and activate muscles and joints we had no idea were parts of our bodies we could control. On the other hand, projecting our focus outwards will often allow our bodies to find their natural coordination and bring things into balance. Obviously this is an oversimplification, but my assessment is that learning to dance is equal parts learning to control the motor skills of how our bodies move, and learning to engage our bodies to project an idea through shape and movement.

We would likely find ourselves unable to move anything at all if we had to mindfully control all of the muscles in our bodies individually. For most of us our nervous systems have been trained from a young age to bring our bodies into balance while standing upright as we become aware of activating a group of muscles to form a shape or turn, take off from the ground, land on the ground, transfer our weight, hold a pose, et cetera. 

Studio shoot of "...Byzantium". Photo: Tom Caravaglia

Proprioception is a word that has been introduced into the common vernacular of dancers and athletes, especially as they recover from various injuries through rehabilitative exercises. As a word, proprioception, describes the sense that informs our brains how to move our bodies without needing to see or focus directly on a part of our body to know where it is in space. Intellectually, we don't need to see our feet on a floor to know that they are attached to our legs, and we can feel the surface of the ground beneath them to know that they are bearing our weight. And we can usually take a step in any direction without looking at the actions of our feet. This is proprioception.

Learning to dance is about training to be mindful and articulate with our joints and muscles, and allowing our proprioception to take over as our teachers and coaches let us know that our bodies are doing what we think it should be doing. If an action we do causes us to unintentionally fall to the floor, we might be able to self-correct by focusing on our "sense of balance" to tell us what part(s) of our bodies is off kilter. However, a practiced outside eye is often the faster (and less frustrating) path to learning and successfully executing new dance skills.

When I first learn a new skill, everything seems to be going too fast. This is because I am having to focus on many different details that will eventually become an action/thought about which I will no longer have to be concerned, as it becomes a good habit, or just automatic. As a result, it is easier to do things more slowly at first, but if it is too slow then the coordination of a movement may lose its sense of rhythm, which is a part of what helps us turn complex actions into dance steps that we draw upon to make more advanced phrases of movement.

I mentioned in my last post that change and learning starts with the idea of taking the first step. Hopefully you find supportive teachers, guides, coaches to introduce you to the environments into which you pursue adventures in life. We all differ in what this means to us, and this is where I have discovered that if your first attempt at something is not going how you might have hoped, then don't be afraid to try and step on a different or parallel path. As a teacher, I often change my approach to classes and dancers when I don't feel like my intended plan was turning out the way I hoped, or I see a more immediate goal to address.

Here's a short clip from a solo moment Paul Taylor created on me back in 2004. I am guessing it only took him a few minutes to ask for the steps, and I remember it taking me quite a bit of practice to not only stay in the center of the stage, but getting it up to speed with the music. 

Klezmerbluegrass rehearsal clip from 2004.