I'm preparing to do a couple of dance performances this summer. Two for flamenco, and two for belly dance. Since I've been belly dancing longer, and I've performed it before, I'm more comfortable on the stage and with my skill. I've only been dancing flamenco for about 6 months, though, so there's still a lot I have to learn by August.
One of the things my teacher has commented on is my lack of style. I can generally follow the basic moves, and look like I know what I'm doing, but I tend to look at the floor when I'm dancing, rather than at my audience. Since we're starting to train for our first performance in August, we're now getting into the little things that make our dance look polished, and of course, mine is looking at the audience. Or rather, the fact that I'm not looking at the audience.
Luckily, I've started reading a little bit about Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and I know why I'm looking at the floor, and how to make myself look towards the audience. Looking at the floor means I'm trying to access a kinesthetic memory. I'm trying to remember or construct how the move feels.
If I want to look up or straight ahead, I need to change the way I think about the moves. Rather than remember how they feel, I need to start thinking about how the dance looks, and think about the sound of my teacher counting off, or the beats of her palmas. Auditory memory access has us looking straight, to the right or left depending on whether it's an auditory constructed experience or an auditory remembered experience, where looking up is a either a visually constructed experience or a visually remembered experience.
Hopefully, if I practice this enough, the dance will be well ingrained into my muscle memory and I won't have to think about the way the dance looks or sounds to perform!
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