Expressing your feelings through dance - part 1

How to express your feelings trough dance?

“I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man – the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be. ~Martha Graham

I've been asking myself this question many times, mostly because of people who was dancing in a formation with me, or people who I've been teaching dancing and had big issues with expressing their emotions while dancing. They were trying to smile while chacha or samba but it always looked so artificial and they were looking like people forced to dance with this fake and weird smile on their faces. Even worst in rumba when you have to show the audience a passionate love to your partner who often is your archenemy. For me it was hard to explain becouse i've never had a problem with that. Finally, one day I understood what all this thing is about. 

it is choosing who you want to be! Or in more detailed way what you want to show in your choreography. 

But what does it mean?

 First and one of the most important things in dancing for me is that I can be whoever I want.!

Always while creating my choreography by me or my choreographer i have to create my personality. It may sound weird but it has to be done to make your choreography and dance convincing and worth watching on the scene. You have to prove that your dance is better than the others. It has to be original and personal at the same time to make it looks real. 

Your personality and character have to match the dance. for example you cannot smile dancing paso-doble (The theme of this dance is resembles fighting in the arena of bullfighters with bulls - corrida. One partner acts as a toreador (Spanish torero), and the second partner plays the role of a red rag or bull.) But you can imagine yourself as a beautiful Spanish girl who wants to seduce her partner by her beauty and win the fight. Clever, feisty and seductive woman who with her look shows her advantage over a man is not so obvious and builds a show that the viewer wants to watch until the end.

Our task is to create your personality or your history for a given dance. In rumba, a woman with a broken heart can't stop loving her partner who is not sure for his feelings to her.

Summing up, creating a character and his detailed features that we want to show in the dance is extremely important because it helps us to make a convincing and touching show.

Photos were taken while dancing paso-doble.