Dancers have a bad habit of watching their feet while they dance. It’s easy to look down when thinking, especially if you’re thinking about footwork variations. Unfortunately, looking down projects uncertainty—and more importantly, it puts a lot of stress on your cervical spine.
The Drill: Today’s drill is a simple way to overcome that bad habit of looking down towards the floor. For an entire dance, keep your eyes focused on the line where the wall meets the ceiling. Because that line is above your head, it’s almost impossible to look down while staying focused up there.
This drill is an overcompensation exercise: to overcome the habit of looking down, you are looking up to an exaggerated degree. Eventually you want to train yourself to keep your focus at eye level, but forcing yourself to look above that line will help you become aware of when you look down.
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by Brian B at west coast swing online
