Today, as I was doing my daily-read through of blogs, I came across this post by my friend SaraBeth (fellow beader and dancer, and thus awesome). Inspired by a post that Lisa Zahiya wrote, SaraBeth has decided to make a commitment to practice belly dance for at least half an hour every single day in 2011. I've decided that this is an admirable goal and I'm going to make it my own as well.There's no denying the importance of practice in any discipline. Even when I only practice once or twice a week, I notice remarkable improvement in my dance... Not just in physical skill, but in actually remembering combos and catching subtle cues. I have no doubt that if I practice every day, as I've been wanting to, that I'll get even better, and be much happier, too.
That just leaves ironing out the details... Will I dance for 30 minutes at a time, or break it down into smaller chunks throughout the day? What counts as practice... Do exercises designed to make me a better dancer count, or only actually dancing or drilling dance moves? Should I reward myself for my progress, or is dancing a reward enough in and of itself? Should I track my progress on this blog, or finally split off a separate blog for my dancing?
One thing that I do know is that I'm going to do a little test-run this week. I've got a recital coming up on Saturday, which is good motivation to practice hard and watch myself improve!
Sounds like a great idea! Try and maybe give yourself a general project to chip away at every day. OR give each day of the week a theme: monday is cue drills, tuesday is techinque, wednesday = props, thursday is arms and posture. etc :)
ReplyDeleteLove it!
ReplyDeleteI'm still working out a few of my own details. Having a kidlet means that I'm going to need some flexibility in my commitment. There may be times when all I can fit in is just one 10 minute session.
ReplyDeleteI'm a dancer. I dance. So I'm also thinking of expanding my 365 days to include other forms of dance. I'm hoping to be able to add a ballet class or two to my schedule next year. The strength, stamina, grace, & flexibility gained from a ballet class helps with all forms of dance.
And yes! You should reward yourself. 100 days of dance? New pants!
I also like Amanda Rose's idea of having themes. I'll be giving that some more thought.
Amanda Rose, that's a good point! Either setting weekly goals or themed days will keep me from just dancing aimlessly.
ReplyDeletePlaza, thanks for dropping by :)
SaraBeth, I think it's fair to make it 30 minutes of practicing any sort of dance!