Have you ever closed your eyes while dancing? I mean while practicing. I find for me, it helps refine my ability to follow. It makes it so I have to trust what my lead is doing, and I can’t anticipate. In a closed embrace dance, I love to close my eyes and feel the subtleties of the connection with my partner.
In solo dancing, it seems closing your eyes could really help you concentrate on the movement in your body, and the connection to the music. It would be a chance to really feel what you’re doing. If I did this, I would video tape the practice and watch it afterward - noting the difference between what I thought I was doing, and what was visually happening.
What’s your opinion on closing your eyes? Do you find it helps? Does it have drawbacks as well?
*Photo by Rajesh Burman on flickr.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew Jaswa // Nov 21, 2007 at 11:19 am
One of the things I do when teaching Lindy Hop or East Coast Swing is to have the follows close their eyes while the leads lead them around the room without really “dancing”. It really helps to get the connection and following through to both sides. As for closing my eyes on the social floor, I’ve only really done that blues dancing and since blues is all about connection it works very nicely.
2 Gidget // Feb 6, 2008 at 10:35 am
I’ve never closed my eyes on the social floor, because it’s too dangerous, since there’s so many people to run into.
I have closed my eyes in practice, though, and I agree, I always recommend it to any follow I teach. It’s an amazing experience.
Trackbacks
Leave a Comment