Criticism in Dance

Once you start taking dance seriously , you will listen to a lot of criticism in dance . You will work on your skills and techniques everyday to get better. I cannot be perfected in days but requires years of patience, hard work, dedication and perseverance. Anyone who registers as a dancer  is inevitably exposed to the endless thrust of criticism. But the truth is that dancers are criticised a lot in this journey of never ending fun.  Constructive criticism should be taken optimistically and one should take it to get better and improve. 

Criticism can really hurt and disturb the dancer as well as the focus of the dancer. The sentimental baggage which comes along with condemnation can grow the seeds of self consciousness , temper , ignominy, exasperation and even total withdrawal from dance.  Sometimes a continuous flow of rectification can make someone forget their love for the art form and compel them to leave the form entirely . One should always be open to constructive feedback from your teacher or even fellow dancers. You should maintain a safe distance from any person who wants to pull you down by making fun of you .

One should always know that you are the keeper of your destiny and you define yourself and you are not defined by someone else. You can put in efforts to improve your performance by practising regularly . Do not take your criticism personally. If they are related to techniques then rehearsing regularly will only take you there. Even professionals get criticised . Your teachers just want the best for you and they are on your side only. There are situations wherein students think that the teacher does not like them . At SSDA teachers are like friends who want you to be the star they see in you. 

You should perpetually make personal benchmarks for yourself. Slow progress is still progress. There are times when you are very frustrated from a particular comment and once you get home , you promise yourself not to stop until you do it flawlessly. But no matter how hard you practise , it is not going to work on that day . Sometimes you just have to give time  to your body and peace to your mind and the best way is to sleep on it. You need to provide your mind the capacity to think things over . Maybe you need some air . There can be times when your body is asking for a break and you should clearly listen to it. Some techniques and moves ask a lot from  you and might need time. There is always a learning curve in dance.

Last but not the least , you need to be kind to yourself and take it slow. Inner strength is very crucial when you are out there performing in front of a huge audience. As a dancer , you can never learn enough and there are plenty of things which you can do. You need to ignore the criticism in dance. You can also read our blog on confidence in dance.