Category: Tea Time Talks

St. Practice day, Feb. 17th, sometime referred to as the day you “practice” for the big day. We will discuss practicing. I am always curious about artists practice routines, how one practices, when, tips, tools and tricks that we each use. This is a recording of the discussion we had on St. Practice Day 2021.

• How do you practice a dance piece?
• How to you learn a step?
• What do you do to increase endurance and flexibility?
• What is your improvisation routine?
• How do you create steps?
• What are your tricks for warming up and cooling down?
• How do you keep material sharp between performances?
• What tools do you use to help you practice, create and prefect?
• Don’t have a routine and curious about developing one?

Below are some notes from the talk. I have included a few things that I forgot to mention in the recorded talk. 

Tools

• FEET: Your feet go everywhere with you! You can practice anytime you are waiting for something, the bus, the elevator, the clerk at the grocery, the kettle to boil, the DMV, even your COVID vaccine.
• AMAZING SLOWERDOWN: – I love this as a tool to practice a step or a dance. I like to set the speed at which I can dance something without mistakes and then work my way up little by little until I’m at a speed that I like for the step or dance. A speed that a musician might play it in a session. There are other tools out there as well that slow music down. I’ve only tried this one myself. I’d love to hear what other tools folks are using. Are there other apps that you would recommend for slowing down music?
• METRONOME – There are metronome apps that you can download on to your phone. I prefer a physical metronome myself and I can hear it better and I’m used to using it. It’s not my favorite thing to dance, so I find it I leave it out with my regular dance things. I’m more likely to use it. If it’s tucked away in a drawer or box I’ll have to remember to bring it out. I highly recommend using a metronome! It’s a very revealing and helpful tool.
• FLOOR – I have several portable floors. One lives in the trunk of my car. It never comes into the house, that way no matter where I travel I have it on hand. I also have one in my living room. I tuck it under the couch when I’m not using it as I live in a studio apartment and space is a concern for me. However when I leave it out I am much more likely to walk by it and dance a step or two throughout the day. My dad, a chef, keeps his dance board in the kitchen and taps out a few steps when he’s cooking or waiting for the kettle to boil. It’s a good idea to keep it out, just like you would an instrument. Dale Russ had a great tip for practicing, he said leave your ‘instrument’ in your chair that way you have to pick it up to sit down. You’re more likely to play a tune if you have to move it enough times. A dance floor place in a spot that you pass by multiple times a day will call your name eventually. 
• ROLLING
  • FOAM ROLLER – I roll out my legs before I practice or dance. Those of you in the membership there is a whole page of stretches and rolling exercises, they can be found here. Those of you not part of the membership here are a few great youtube videos that I recommend. Youtube video: Rolling legs with a foam roller.
  • FOOT ROLLER – lacrosse ball, special foot rollers, a frozen water bottle. Youtube video: Foot and calf rolling.
  • BALLS – I have a whole basket of balls to roll out different muscles. I use the wall or floor for pressure. Some of the balls are dog toys or kid toys. My favorite one is a kid toy that my boyfriend found. It’s about the size of a softball, but not as hard. It seems to work for most of my muscles except my feet. I keep the “basket of balls” under my coffee table and bust them out when I am watching tv. 
• PLAYLISTS – create a playlist of music so that you can go on autopilot when you practice. It helps me to have these created in advance so that I can get right to the business of practicing. I have most of my playlists on my computer, but I am slowly building ones on Spotify that you are welcome to use for your practicing. My page is here.
  • Have a music playlist of you repertoire.
  • A Playlist of an entire show you are performing. 
  • Music you love to dance to and that inspires you. 
  • Instrument playlist (i.e. fiddle, accordion, pipes, voice….)
  • Tune playlists: jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes…
  • A player playlist (Martin Hayes, Johnny Connolly….).
  • A playlist of local players that you might encounter at a session or a gig. Get to know their music and how to dance to them. 
  • YOUTUBE: I created youtube playlists of music and dancers. Youtube has the ability to slow down or speed up a video in 25% increments. The sound quality isn’t always the best when it’s slowed down, but it is a useful tool. I use it more for music to practice to then dances to learn. I find it hard to learn a dance by slowing the video down, it’s a skill that I haven’t perfected. It’s easier for me to learning it up to speed and stop it along the way, that way I can hear and see how it should go in real time. I’m always impressed by dancers who can learn by slowing the video down! I have many of those listed as playlist and you are welcome to save any of them to your own account. You can find them here on my youtube channel. This is currently one of my favorite activities outside of dancing and I am adding videos on the daily.

Tricks

• Make it a easy a possible
  • Make a small goal of practicing one step or to one track of music a day. You may do more but keep the pressure light when starting you. It’s easy to do 1 minute of dancing or one step. If you dance 1 step per day, that’s 30 practice sessions in a month or 30 minutes on the one step. 
• Dance shoes out and in the way so you put them on. Have your dance board and shoes where you can see them everyday.