Hi, I’m Mary Bennett and I’ve been circle dancing for about 15 years. I was really drawn to it but not very good at it. I wasn’t “a dancer”. If you’re new to circle dance and you’ve done other kinds of dancing, whether ballet as a kid or social dancing, you’ll likely catch on really quickly. If you’re a bit inhibited and better at math than movement (like me), these tips are for you.
Here’s what I wish I’d done differently:
- Listen to the music between sessions or only dance when the music is either familiar or at least appealing
- Pick your spots. ALL circle dance facilitators will encourage you to take care of yourself. You don’t have to dance every dance. You could even dance only one or two if you wanted to do that.
- Talk to your facilitator. Make sure they understand where you’re coming from so they don’t worry about maybe they’ve offended you or you’re not having a good time. Let them know this *is* the way you’re going to have a good time.
- “Dance” to the music at home – just free dance, such as swaying when you’re washing dishes.
- Ask the facilitator to give you the steps to one of the dances you particularly like and try out the steps at home on your own.
- Know that some people *really* get into this. They travel the world (pre-covid at least) and know personally international teachers and regular “dance camps”. You may never want to do this. I don’t. You don’t even have to learn the names of the various teachers if you don’t want to. Just let that information float over you.
- What else? I’m meeting some folks tonight for the first time, and I might add to this list after that.
My approach
- What I plan to do tonight and for new groups if it works:
- Select 5 dances I like and have few steps and a regular beat
- Adapt some of them so we’ll do twice: once to get the rhythm and some of the steps, and then a second time to do all the steps.
Zoom and Facebook dance opportunities
- I also often dance on zoom (and used to travel to Ladner to dance with Darlene and Frances). Contact circledanceladner (at) gmail.com to find out about upcoming dances.
- There are other ways to participate, usually on facebook, from Tennessee to Findhorn, Scotland.