Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Thursday 20 December 2012

5 Things to do while Dance Studios are Closed

The end of year holidays are here! Which means studios are closing and dancers are left to fend for themselves. No space, no giant mirrors, no stage, no training, and more importantly, no audiences and acquaintances to accompany you through the cold, cold, wintery months (ok that was a relative term. If you count rainy days as cold, then my statement was correct.) So what has a dancer got to do during these lonely days, you ask? Fret not, I came up with a survival list that you could take up in order to kill time until the dance studios reopen again next year!
  1. Keep working on your muscles
    It's bad enough that we're going to fall behind on our dancing skills during the inactive months where bears hibernate. So why not keep to a routine to work on strengthening your core muscles (and other muscles if required) and stretching your tendons to reach the splits and whatnot. Do crunches every morning you wake up, scissor kicks, planks, splits, arches, toe-touching, calf and hamstring stretching, you get the catch here. It's just a matter of finding a spot for you to do such things, and imagining yourself in the studio.

    I know it can feel a bit claustrophobic, but don't be fooled. You also only take up a portion of the studio space to do your warm ups and aerobics. Don't attempt any choreography work unless you're abso-bloody-lutely certain your room is big enough for you to unleash your dance lines of fury. You don't want any accidents occurring in your room do you? Trust me on this one, I cartwheeled in my room before and I broke a glass panel, and ended up having 7 stitches on my left foot. It was a sight for sore eyes.
  2. Take dance photos
    If you're travelling elsewhere in the world, you could practice your lines by posing in front of a monument, cathedral, basilica, castle, plaza, or any other place of interest. When I mean pose, I don't mean those silly jump shots that somehow became trendy over the past decade. Disguise a ballet pose as a touristy pose so you don't get stares. I am not sure how I'm gonna do it, but I'll find a way when I go to Perth for the next few days.

    However, if you really must jump, then strut your double attitudes, fan kicks, a la secondes, piques, and the like. Cute poses are too mainstream.

  3. Haunt clubs that play jazz music, blues music, salsa music, etc. etc.
    Places like Blu-Jazz, Tab, Switch play music that are suitable to swing to. Union Square also has places that play salsa music too. So if you're staying in Singapore in the holidays, go grab your dance friends and check out different clubs, have a feel of their music, and see if you like it. Then, bust a move with your fellow partner dancers and then use that to catch the attention of that cute guy/girl standing there with their buddy.

    Some of my teachers also mentioned that there are kitchen sink drills that you could do. So practice those isolations, steps, ballet technique and whatnot. Then you can go chat up the bartender, sway your hips, do tendus, work on grounding your footwork, while keeping your upper body quiet and still. If you get weird looks from people behind you, you're doing it right, but if the barista is the one shooting you the weird look, you know you're doing something wrong.
  4. Spend time with family
    It's pretty self explanatory. If you've been dancing and neglecting your family, it's time to shift your focus away from your narcissistic tendencies - I mean, technique and lines in dance - into your immediate family members. Quality and bonding times are a must during the holiday season. Everybody falls back to their families eventually, and you don't want to sour any relationships with your family members.
  5. Eat, shop, and do things normal people are meant to do
    There are some days we kind of just forget how non-dancer people live: eat out, go on shopping sprees, go to a theme park, grab a book. Now is a good time to catch up with your other non-dancing friends and do some festive shopping and eating and having a good time. You know what they say: get a life! What better time to do it than now.

    But you should be warned: don't get a "life" that becomes too addictive ie: clubbing and bar hopping. Switching back to your dancer mode will be hard when the studio reopens by then. So it's best to still be a dance-a-holic if you're serious about maintaining your dancer lifestyle. I know I will, because of my dance scholarship.
With that, I shall end this blogpost by saying I will be disappearing from the face of the Internet until I return on 29th December. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and keep swinging on!