LECTURES

YOUR MINDSET is THE MOST important component of the victory!

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Individual subjects

— 90 min —

Mindset: “The Chains of Delay! Never Copy — Vision — Competition”

CREATE YOUR CONCEPT!

Basic knowledge — before you start.

“What a dancer’s body works for”

(A message to competitors!)

More versatile you are —

more stories you can tell

That magical poetry of everyday: practices, rehearsals, conditioning. New methods of developing the body are tried out on (and by) dancers every day — a marathon towards one goal: to make unnatural for the body movements seem natural; to reach the excellence of the shape. Somehow, while the improvement of the external is significant and is blooming, the matter of “why” we improving shapes and “what for” we improving it has been lost. So today is about what’s and why’s.

Firstly, let's define the term “A dancer’s’ body” and how is it different from a “normal” one. The dancer's body [Latin dancer’s body] is an extraordinary creation, without a doubt not usual, — a fusion of good genetics with particular (but different for each) cultural memory, which is now also adapted to high intensity trainings through years of developing persistence and is adjusted to the physical demands of certain dance techniques [in our case — Latin].

However, even such a truly and extraordinary machine wouldn't be driving that well without a fuel; and the fuel here is the brain. The brain produces the connections which forces a better dancing: better coordination, balance, speed, accuracy; which motivates a dancer and interests a dancer in different processes. Two of them are the most important for the development — the process of learning and the process of competing, where the second one mostly always outshines the first one, which is why the external form became so much better, and the cause for improving that form was forgotten.

Since the invention and then further popularity of the contemporary dance, and its particular kind — an abstract dance [a dance without a plot] — the absence of an idea was even more justified in competitive dancing. Although it’s pleasing for the eye to witness beautiful movements flow one after another (given that a dancer won't stand on the way of that form); does it really root with latin origins and should it be the main direction? Hardly so. Not because it’s wrong (‘cause it’s not), but because it just won’t be excellent latin. Why not?

It is a fact, that in order to speak you must first learn how to listen. Because if you can’t, you won’t speak in the way that people can hear. Even so in dancing we talk with our bodies, the rule is still applied. Without knowing what people expect to see, you won't be able to appeal to their feelings. And what would excite anyone who came to a couple latin dance competition?

When we come to a latin dance competition, we’re entering another reality, that has a specific language which can only be shared with the people who are also engaged in this activity. And who isn’t involved in the activity of having a conversation? Adding to it a certain historical background of the five dances we present, we then get an infinite source of inspiration for finding and then telling remarkable and moving stories that the audience desires.

Why not just read some book? Easy. Because a person gets a feeling through a movement faster than a brain gets it through a written text. So it’s an experience of the movement, that is exciting, the enjoyment of constant reactions between the two, which are collected into a thoughtful narrative and concentrated in a short period of time [two minutes]. In some ways a competitive form of the dance is the fastest form of moving delivery of a thought or a feeling, and the more ways your body knows of how to place words into a physical shape and the bigger your body’s vocabulary is, the better success you will have with the public.

We get to know man and woman, latin culture, soul and body, nature, memory, inside and etc. through words that are different than spoken-words, with the language that was invented in the moment with the particular music, in the particular environment. When people say, that dancing [competitive latin] is easy, they are probably talking about a very primitive form of it, because it is not easy to have those pieces in harmony within ourselves and with a partner. Therefore, coming back to the very start of the conversation, the dancer’s body works for the versatility of its dance vocabulary and for the clarity of the pronunciation of given ideas, while dancer’s brains should be working on the significancy of the ideas one wants to portray.

The other key-word here is the entertainment. How would you entertain with quality? Quality of the movement and the intention..

The best idea would be to explore as many different styles of dances as possible: jazz, ballet, contemporary, modern, tap, flamenco, — anything. However, it all adds to your vocabulary and stimulate creative thinking, helps to adjust movements into latin stylistic, and when mastered well, it also could build different perceptions for public, for example when they can watch you dance and neglect the meaning and just concentrate on the rhythms, and silences, shapes..

And that’s exactly where versatility helps, for the reasons that our form already suggests constant changes of speed, mood, reactions, let alone quantity of rounds and competitions, that forces you to come up with something new more often than normal; so one must excellently know the background of the dances and have the basic elements trained to the automatic motion to at least have a chance for smart instinctive interpretation of the knowledges one has.

To sum up it all, a dancer’s job is to create a calligraphy by body to then go from movement to lines, from moving to “moving”. To make the connection between the physical movement and the motion of the mind so clear that anyone would get it. But it’s impossible to achieve such clarity without raising the level of the intelligence of the body and gaining the knowledge of what makes the form fall into its place. Therefore it’s a hard job, a constant job for both, the body and the mind, so don't believe anyone, who says that's easy.