The Dance Primer

Today, Naomi is put on the spot, giving advice to dancers new and not-so-new:

Amberlynn: What’s the number one piece of advice you would give to a beginner dancer?

Naomi: (thinking) uhhh….

A: I guess it doesn’t have to be number one, but-

N: Yeah, that’s so broad! Um. I guess it would be to be careful when you admire someone. You can watch dancers you admire, I definitely did, but you have to go for what they’re going for, not go for them. What I mean is, I see a lot of dancers coming up these days that have this really dogmatic example of, oh, like they watch Skye dance and they’re like, “oh, he’s a great dancer, so I’ll just break down what he does. And I’ll wear similar clothes, and I’ll be cool too!” That’s not really what you should be going for. It’s so dangerous that way because, of course he’s a good dancer, and of course you should have people you look up to, and I mean, Skye would definitely be on the top of my list if I were a guy.

Does that make sense? I mean, the first dance idol I had was a dancer Sing Lim, do you know her?

A: I don’t. Mm-mm.

N: Ok. Not enough people do, because she’s not on YouTube which is totally ridiculous. She is in Singapore. She was dancing with Ryan Francois back in the day. She danced in the first event video I ever saw, it was “Can’t Top The Lindy Hop”, for Frankie’s 80th birthday in New York. She was a good dancer, a good mover, but I never said “oh, I’m gonna cut my hair in that hairstyle, and I’m gonna do that move just like her.” What really impressed me about her was that she could follow anyone doing anything and I was like “that’s what I really want to work on.” That’s why I admire her, so I have to find my own way of doing that. Instead of “I’m gonna wear a pink dress just like Sing Lim.” I think that can be a very tempting shortcut way to get at things when you admire someone, to try to copy all the outer qualities. So I guess the best advice I could give a beginner is to be careful when you idolize someone not to copy but to be inspired by and be guided by what they do. Because when you start out, there are all these people to look toward - and it could be tempting to cut your hair really spiky and blonde and shake a lot…

A: What about seasoned dancers? People who have been around for a while. What tips would you have for them?

N: Like 10 years? 5 years? 50 years?

A: Well, someone who’s come to their own about what the dance is, you know what I mean?

N: I think my advice to them would be remember why you started dancing in the first place. Because I really see a lot of people at that intermediate phase. Sometimes I really wonder if they enjoy what they’re doing. That isn’t everybody, but sometimes people are SO serious and they’re just working working working working, you know, they want to get better and they practice all day and they huff and puff. And I just don’t see them enjoy themselves the way that beginners can so easily tap into. Sometimes we can really wander away from that, and forget that is part of why they even wanted to do this in the first place. So just remember to enjoy it, no matter what level they’re at. I think that would be the best advice I can give them.

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To contact Naomi to book her for teaching or performance gigs, you may contact her via email at japx2 at yahoo. Sorry, I would just make it an easy clicking link, but I don’t want her to get attacked by spam bots.