TOO OLD TO DANCE?
Updated: May 2, 2020
We live in a world of clichés where very often we trust the opinion of society and media to tell us what to do and how to live our lives. But before we dive forward let’s see what the dictionary says a cliché is:
“ Mindless repetition that betrays a lack the original though.”
When it comes to dance our observation is that people don’t know enough about it. Most of us have to trust our knowledge to what we’ve seen from movies or Dancing With The Stars. The truth is that most of the dance movies that we’ve seen in Hollywood are a very false interpretation of what really happens in a dancer’s life. Different angles, lightning and background music is being used to manipulate the opinion of the viewer. Most movies generally romanticize the character of the actor dancer giving him/her some “natural” skills due to genetics or supernatural powers and abilities that professional dancers have to learn and master for many years .
So may be it’s a talent then? Honestly we wish that that was true and every person finds their dance super power and vocation one day while walking in the park listening to their favorite tune and becomes the next Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. As there is some talent involved most of the time our practice shows that you will need to work your butt off to become an excellent dancer and master your moves.
We would like to think of each person as an outlier. Outliers are people who differ from a particular group and break the social opinion and destroy cliches. Outliers are the people who change common opinions and proof that everything is possible if you put your mind in to it. Starting to dance at an older age may have some disadvantages such as decreasing in physical ability but it offers so many other beautiful things that younger dancers are lacking. There is so much more to dance than just being fit and having good technique.
What an older person might bring different is life experience and maturity. The one emotional inspiration that makes a performer captivating and memorable and makes you feel that something you can't explain with words is when the performer is digging deep in to that massive library of life experiences and bringing it to their performance. In one of the most passionate dance styles like the Spanish flamenco it is believed and often not allowed for a younger people to perform due to the lack of life experiences. The flamenco masters believe that that way they are protecting the true art of the style trying to prevent mindless moves with no emotional message portrayed.
The best way to find out if you are too old to learn to dance is to go out there and try it for yourself. But be patient and remember that dance like everything else takes time. To become a good dancer is the same as becoming a good surgeon. Don’t expect anybody to allow you to do a surgery after two weeks spent in medical school to prevent you from killing anybody.
"Good thing is that nobody will die if you mess up your Cha Cha routine. The worst that can happen is to get a bad look from your dance partner but you can live with that. "
Nowadays dance becomes more and more accessible and easier to study. There are tones of videos on the internet and dozens of dance schools in every city. We believe that using YouTube as a free available material is a great form of finding inspiration but sometimes it also can get frustrating learning from a video. To speed the process of learning and eliminate frustrations we recommend go and find a good dance teacher and a reliable dance studio near you. Make sure you do your research and you read some of their Google reviews and some information on their website. Finding the right studio is like going back to your own house after a long day at work where you will spend quality time with your dance family leaving behind all the problems of the day.