Students ask us all the time: do you have any tips on practicing? My #1 tip to get started:
Have a deadline.
Sometimes I feel guilty that Peter and I don’t practice more. It can be really hard to motivate ourselves to practice for practice-sake. I always need a deadline: a contest coming up, a performance at an event, filming for our Patreon videos, or just what the heck are we gonna teach for our local weekly classes.
But even when we set an arbitrary deadline for ourselves (i.e. make up a routine by the end of the month) we still punk out half the time unless there’s some accountability (we’ve told people we’re performing that routine at the end of the month, or we signed up and paid for the contest it's for, or we’re supposed to teach it at an event).
But how can you have a deadline like that with events on hold for the moment? 2 ways:
1. Get a practice buddy. I don’t mean the person you live with even if you’re lucky enough to live with a dancer. If you’re solo find one person, if there are 2 of you find another couple online. Though you won’t meet in person the great part about this is they can be anywhere in the world. Say you’re going to send something on a specific date. This can be the same date “let’s show and tell this Friday” or better yet you can build a routine together “I’ll send you the first 8 eights this Friday. You send me the next 8 eights on Monday”
2. If you’re comfy showing off your dancing to more people, announce that you’ll be sharing something on a specific date. This can be a message to a few friends or a public post for the world to see. Either way you will feel accountable and motivated.
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