5 Life Lessons Ballroom Dance Sport Teaches You

Dance Sport is as inspirational as it is laborious. Throughout one’s experience of movement, life lessons on personal development emerge and teach us how to become who we are. These challenging lessons set the cornerstones of a dancing career as a passionate pathway of self realization and fulfillment. Last but not least, it’s about understanding both life and dance.

1. On Habit

How many times have you heard your coach tell you to practice that step more than a thousand times to incorporate it into your veins, make it a part of yourself, let it become the natural way of moving? It’s because the perfect movement is not a hazardous act, it is the result of repetition, the benefit of habit. Because the better dancer you wish to become is nothing but the better dancer you become, today, plus all the other days that separate you from your goal. But habit is not a blind repetition, it’s a conscious one.

2. On Passion

By the time you start dancing nearly every day and start thinking of dancing more often than you think of food, you know that dancing has risen up from an action to an identity. And when you put all your might into your practice, into your steps, into your performance, you will feel the power of passion. And others will feel that too.

'

3. On Belief

You practice every day, sometimes feel you have leveled-up and sometimes not. You deal with frustrations and hang on to your habits. But what if nothing happens? What if all these hours of sweaty hard-work lead nowhere? Questions like these often arise, but before they could bring you down, remember that you dance because you believe you are a dancer. And it is with that belief, with that underlying irremovable certitude, that you fuel all those hours of practice then shine in your performances.

4. On Possibility

Ok. So you practice. Inhabit every moment with passion. And believe that you’re a dancer. Then what? Then you get closer and closer to your goals. Your dream now has a shape, whereas before it was blurred and unreal. Habit, passion, and belief speak of possibilities that past weeks, past months and past years prove right. You’re actually going somewhere and your continuous progress, no matter how insignificant it may seem at first, promises future fulfillment.

5. On That First Step

All this is great yet not enough. It happens in the depths of your thoughts and feelings; it takes place in the ballroom, everyday, while you build up your choreography and refine your technique. The moment will come when you will have to make that first step, take that challenging performance, go to that dreaded competition, and show the world what kind of dancer you are. No worries, you will not be as good as you want yourself to be, but by giving your best, you will still show all the greatness you have secretly nurtured. Besides, not being up to your vision is actually good, because it means you have a goal yet to achieve.