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It’s all about Waltz today- how do we fit it into a small room? Where do you even begin and is it even possible to practice Standard dances without sufficient space? Read our guide to practicing Waltz at home and click on IGTV buttons for a short video with all of the exercises.

let's waltz

how to practice at home- PART 3                        

Hope you’re having a great time practicing- if you haven’t seen our previous post on how to practice Samba at home just click HERE

Today we’re back with another practice guide, this time we’re doing Waltz. Practicing Latin dances at home is challenging, but Standard is even more difficult. Keep in mind that the only thing you should adjust are the size of your steps and body weight shift- the muscular tension, posture and quantity of body action should be the same as when you practice in normal conditions. Use an elastic band if you have it- it will help you keep your frame coordinated while dancing alone.

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“ADJUST THE SIZE OF YOUR STEPS BUT KEEP POSTURE, MUSLCE TONE AND BODY ACTIONS UNCHANGED”

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DURATION OF PRACTICE: 90 min

The practice session excludes the initial general warm up and the stretching that should always be a part of your practice routine. We’ll tell you more about this in future posts, for now just keep in mind that you should never dance without warming up first, even if it’s in your living room.

EXERCISE 1- RISE & FALL COORDINATION

HOW TO DANCE IT:                                           

 – start in maximum elevation, feet closed. Lower on LF and let the RF slide to side without weight then rise on LF and bring RF back into starting position. Repeat 4 times

– keep weight on LF, lower and slide RF back without weight. Repeat 4 times then change feet and repeat whole sequence with weight on RF

PAY ATTENTION:

Coordinate the lowering/rising on standing leg and opening/closing of moving leg. The moving leg should stop once you reach the maximum lowering/rising on standing leg. No body weight should be transferred to moving leg!

4x

Rise/lower on LF, RF slides to side/closes

4x

Rise/lower on LF, RF slides back/closes

4x

Rise lower on RF, LF slides side/closes

4x

Rise/lower on RF, LF slides back/closes

DURATION OF EXERCISE

 Use slow or normal speed of music, repeat the whole sequence twice.

CLICK ON THE IGTV IMAGE ON THE RIGHT TO SEE ALL THE EXERCISES!

EXERCISE 2 – “SQUARE”

HOW TO DANCE IT: 

We’re using closed changes to train the central balance positions and coordination between body weight transfer and leg/foot actions.

Dance Closed Change RF fwd/LF back slowly first, using the following timing:

1,2,3

Step RF fwd, reach central balance position

4,5,6

Body weight on RF

1,2,3

Step LF to side, reach central balance position

4,5

Close feet

6

Lower on RF, prepare to step LF back

Dance slow version twice, then proceed by using normal (1 step-1 beat) timing and dance 4 times. Switch feet and repeat sequence with LF fwd.

DURATION OF EXERCISE: 3 min

CLICK ON THE IGTV IMAGE ON THE LEFT TO SEE ALL THE EXERCISES!

EXERCISE 3 – NATURAL & REVERSE TURNS

HOW TO DANCE IT: 

Dance Natural Turns first, turning 1/4 every 3 steps for easier orientation in a small space. Dance 8 bars of Natural Turn, then switch over to Reverse Turns.

We advise you to use an elastic band for easier arm coordination and try to use sways like you would normally- it will help you dance a fuller action even though the space is restricted.

Make steps as long as you can- use the whole space available and don’t forget about the rise/fall and central balance coordination you worked on in previous exercises.

DURATION OF EXERCISE: 3 min

CLICK ON THE IGTV IMAGE ON THE RIGHT TO SEE ALL THE EXERCISES!!

EXERCISE 4- CHOREOGRAPHY PRACTICE

Now to the most difficult aspect of practicing at home- training your competition routine. Be ready for some bloopers as you first try this- it feels very strange and it’s easy to get disoriented as space is completely wrong for this kind of practice.

HOW TO DANCE IT:

Split your choreography into sections where each section is 8 bars of music. To give yourself some structure, practice each section for 5 min without music, 5 min with slow music and 5 minutes with normal speed.

This will give you roughly 15min to dance through each section. Don’t worry about directions, turn the routine so you can fit it into whatever space you have.

Concentrate instead on specific aspects of your dancing- what do you want to improve? As we’ve done all of the previous exercises with the goal to improve leg/foot actions of your Waltz, you could try and apply it to your routine as well.

DURATION: 

if you want to keep to 90min practice plan, then this gives you about 60min for this section- meaning you can practice 4 parts of your routine.

Don’t worry about not training all of your Waltz- the next time you come back to practicing this dance, start with the sections you didn’t get to during previous training session.

CLICK ON THE IGTV IMAGE ON THE LEFT TO SEE ALL THE EXERCISES!!

EXERCISE 5 – DANCE THROUGH

Good job, just one more thing to do before you’re done! Put on some music and dance through your whole Waltz routine. Dance with the muscle tone, energy, expression that you would use during a competition- nothing but the amount of travelling you do should change!

Keep in mind that it will feel super strange to dance with direction that are all over the place. Don’t worry- think about your frame, body actions and leg/foot actions, directions will be easy to recover once you can practice on normal floor.

Dance twice for 90 seconds with 2min break between executions. Pay attention to how the parts you’ve practiced during the previous section are working and where you find the most difficulty- this way you can correct it during your next practice session or ask your teacher about it during the next online lesson.

There you go- you’re done! 

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Keep dancing peeps, competitions will be here in no time!

 

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