What is the best way to break from routine!

[dadada_486]

I think of this as "repetition hell"! Basically when you don't think too much about your moves and what you are doing, it is very possible and easy to fall into the trap of doing the same moves over and over again. This is because your muscle memory always uses its most recent memory. If you were extremely tired (like in festivals) or if you tried to achieve "flow", which is to dance with as little conscious thinking, you could easily repeat moves over and over. Even if this weren't boring for the follower, it is extremely boring for the leader... You end up becoming bored of the dance, become less enthusiastic and therefore lose connection.

So I'm wondering what's the solution. Do you try to experiment and improvise as much as possible? Do you try to follow the music and work of musicality so that while a move is the same, it is not necessarily in the same context? Or do you make a conscious effort to change your moves? This latter one involves a lot of thinking so may not be the solution.

 

[Chris_Yannick]

I think of this as "repetition hell"! Basically when you don't think too much about your moves and what you are doing, it is very possible and easy to fall into the trap of doing the same moves over and over again. This is because your muscle memory always uses its most recent memory. If you were extremely tired (like in festivals) or if you tried to achieve "flow", which is to dance with as little conscious thinking, you could easily repeat moves over and over. Even if this weren't boring for the follower, it is extremely boring for the leader... You end up becoming bored of the dance, become less enthusiastic and therefore lose connection.

So I'm wondering what's the solution. Do you try to experiment and improvise as much as possible? Do you try to follow the music and work of musicality so that while a move is the same, it is not necessarily in the same context? Or do you make a conscious effort to change your moves? This latter one involves a lot of thinking so may not be the solution.

The universal answer is to stop dancing to patterns and start dancing to the music.

 

[TikiTaka]

Do 1000 shimmies

 

[1derpalm]

I think of this as "repetition hell"! Basically when you don't think too much about your moves and what you are doing, it is very possible and easy to fall into the trap of doing the same moves over and over again. This is because your muscle memory always uses its most recent memory. If you were extremely tired (like in festivals) or if you tried to achieve "flow", which is to dance with as little conscious thinking, you could easily repeat moves over and over. Even if this weren't boring for the follower, it is extremely boring for the leader... You end up becoming bored of the dance, become less enthusiastic and therefore lose connection.

So I'm wondering what's the solution. Do you try to experiment and improvise as much as possible? Do you try to follow the music and work of musicality so that while a move is the same, it is not necessarily in the same context? Or do you make a conscious effort to change your moves? This latter one involves a lot of thinking so may not be the solution.

Take a class 8n a neighbouring city. I just did and my muscle memory is shot lol. Different beginner moves that I've never been taught, different count and style (ET2 NYC style), different feel to the preps, different way (slightly) to lead 360s. Really shows your "opportunities for development".

 

[Chris_Yannick]

To expand on my earlier response:

First, stop learning patterns. Instead, learn how to deconstruct patterns. Break them down into their constituent parts. Get used to traveling more rather than staying on one spot. Start dancing more circular. If you can, learn some Casino.

When you start to see things from different angles, you don’t get stuck in repetition loops as often.

This can be somewhat difficult to grasp at first, but it’s the way towards unlimited, spontaneous pattern creation.

 

[brujo]

Trick the novelty seeking part of your brain by always trying new stuff. Over the years I've built up a collection of salsa things I want to get better at. So for example I bought the Dance Dojo lessons a few years back, and have a bunch of my salsa online courses like pachanga styling and a few afro cuban rumba videos. When I find myself getting bored, I just pick like one or two little things ( it can be a move, a sequence, a body isolation, a way to react to an instrument, some pretzel move from a salsa a la cubana dvd, a cool flick from youtube etc ) and try to swap it in when I go social dancing. When it becomes a natural part of the repertoire, just try other stuff... It's like that old wives tale that your body changes every seven years, just introduce new dance dna once in a while to replace the old boring stuff there...