— from a recent issue of Dance Notes.

What I notice from a teacher's point of view is that people want to express but nine out of ten times they don't have a clue what they are expressing! I ask in the lesson, "What are you doing there?" They almost always say they don't know. How can they express if they don't know what they are doing? Clarity of mind is so important.

There are thousands of subjects that you can explore but a very simple one is just timing of your choreography. Go through everything and know your timing and rhythm. Then you can decide where to focus and what dynamic to use. The clearer you create that picture in your mind the easier it is to use your soul to express. It's simple. It might sound very off the wall and spiritual, but the brain is not working enough. They come into a lesson and expect me to tell them what they have to do. I feel they should tell me what they want to do while I sit in a chair and just ask questions. Most of the time the student asks the teacher questions, and that comes back to the current system. The teacher has the power, and I don't think that's right. We should be there to give the couples the power to produce whatever they want to produce. If the teacher says to use the arm this way and they go out on the floor and do it, it's really not them is it? Because the teacher is not in the student's body. This is actually more of a teacher's tip but for the dancers as well, get clear in your mind what you are doing. That opens a lot of doors to new areas. And once you know it you can let it go because it's muscle memory. That's what my partner and I do… we get it clear and do it over and over. Then we both know what we are doing and we don't have fights.

Also, take one subject at a time instead of ten. A lot of couples practice two hours, five dances, five or six subjects. Then after those two hours they think, "What have I done?" You have so much that you don't know what to do anymore and you don't remember it. We might do one subject for a day, or for a week. Before Blackpool we did one subject for two months! It takes such a long time to change habits.
 
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