IS IT POSSIBLE TO TEACH YOURSELF TO ICE-DANCE
- Thread starter FSWer
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purple skates
Shadow Dancing
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Yes and no. You can teach yourself the easier patterns, maybe, if you are good at reading the dance patterns from a book and know how to do swing rolls and chassis. But ice dance, including solo, really needs a coach if you are going to do it well.
Clarice
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I think it's very important to have a good coach. You can't learn everything you need to know just from the diagrams. Watching good videos can help, but nothing beats feedback from your coach. They can see in the moment what needs to change and can tell you exactly what you need to do differently.
overedge
Mayor of Carrot City
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It would be very difficult, even if you have good basic skating skills. You can practice the dances on your own, but you would learn them a lot faster, and probably learn them more correctly, with a coach teaching them to you.
gkelly
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Yes, that's true. You need to be comfortable with your skating and focus on your skating technique so you don't fall.
Dancing on the floor can be very improvisational, but dancing on ice needs to be planned carefully. ESPECIALLY if you're skating with a partner, you need to know exactly what you're going to do next and exactly what your partner is going to do next.
That's why ice dancing starts out with set pattern dances. Everyone does exactly the same steps. (In many of them, including all the beginning dances, both partners do the same steps side by side in Kilian position. In a lot of the more advanced dances, each partner is doing something different, but everybody who skates the "lead" steps/men's steps will skate exactly the same steps, and same for everyone who skates the "follow" or women's steps.)
You have to learn the correct steps with the correct technique and correct timing. You have to have good control of the actual skating before you can start to really dance to the music. Doing it correctly is very important for your safety, and for the safety of the other skaters on the ice.
If you like to move to music and want to move to music on the ice, stick to gliding on two feet and just move your arms or maybe your shoulders, etc., in a controlled way, only as much as you're comfortable with to maintain your balance on two feet.
Dancing on the floor can be very improvisational, but dancing on ice needs to be planned carefully. ESPECIALLY if you're skating with a partner, you need to know exactly what you're going to do next and exactly what your partner is going to do next.
That's why ice dancing starts out with set pattern dances. Everyone does exactly the same steps. (In many of them, including all the beginning dances, both partners do the same steps side by side in Kilian position. In a lot of the more advanced dances, each partner is doing something different, but everybody who skates the "lead" steps/men's steps will skate exactly the same steps, and same for everyone who skates the "follow" or women's steps.)
You have to learn the correct steps with the correct technique and correct timing. You have to have good control of the actual skating before you can start to really dance to the music. Doing it correctly is very important for your safety, and for the safety of the other skaters on the ice.
If you like to move to music and want to move to music on the ice, stick to gliding on two feet and just move your arms or maybe your shoulders, etc., in a controlled way, only as much as you're comfortable with to maintain your balance on two feet.
gkelly
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For solo, you don't need to worry about what your partner is doing, or worry about them worrying about what you're doing.
But you do need to feel steady on your feet and not try to make things up on the spot that might be more challenging than what you're ready for technically. Learn a number of different skills first. Learn the beginning dance patterns correctly and practice doing the correct edges with good technique, and then you can start to add more musical interpretation to be more dancy.
But you do need to feel steady on your feet and not try to make things up on the spot that might be more challenging than what you're ready for technically. Learn a number of different skills first. Learn the beginning dance patterns correctly and practice doing the correct edges with good technique, and then you can start to add more musical interpretation to be more dancy.
