Club Dancing Index (Includes Grinding)

too stiff?

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum and new to dancing as well!

I've been trying to learn how to dance to club music but I can't seem to learn... When I dance in public people say I'm too stiff. Does anyone know how I can fix that? I don't even know what that means! haha I tried wiggling my hips more but that just makes girls laugh.

I'm a 24 year old male and my goal is to learn enough basics to be able to dance in public without making a complete ass of myself =p

Any help would be much appreciated!

Oh, p.s., if anyone knows a good dvd I can get to teach me that would be great. I found a website called pickupdance.com, does anyone know if they're any good?

thanks again!

Kylekrebs, welcome to Dance Forums! The best instructional DVD's are at Dance Vision.com and the USISTD site. You can find both sites using Google. Good luck.

I think the key to overcoming stiffness is to not care what people think (which I know is really hard) but you have to just let loose and just have fun. I used to be really stiff and then decided I look bad anyways, might as well have a little fun and loosen up!

PS Welcome to dance forums!

Dancevision and ISTD will be no help to OP since I'm guessing by saying he wants to dance to club music, he means he wants to dance to club music.
Youtube, you can find just about anything there.

Welcome to DF!! Club Music? as in.....can you "hear" the beat (first question) and second - can you somehow find it - within yourself - to give yourself permission to be someone else? imitation imitation - and not care what others think? DVD's lessons of the dances you want to do can really help, in the privacy of your own living room, den, where-ever...a private lesson here or there (I've seen "club dancing" lessons advertised on web and at certain studios)....invest in yourself and just get out there on the floor and have a good time.

Neither of these commercial vendors have anything about club dancing in their library.

Here's a link to Dance Forum's info on club dancing:

http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=2761

Hi everyone! First of all, thanks for the support and quick response.

Freeageless, I checked out the sites you suggested and as some others have already pointed out, it doesn't seem to have what I'm looking for.

I'm not really interested in learning salsa or the cha-cha or how to tango and stuff. I'm not going to be joining competitions or anything. I just want to be able to dance in a club with a girl and look good doing it.

Mindputtee, thanks for the tip. You're right, it's really tough! I try not to get too self-conscious but I can't help it. Hip-hop isn't my natural music of choice (I'm more of an indie-rock kinda guy) so when I dance in a club I feel kind of like a poser. That's why I want to get a DVD to practice on. At least that way I can "acclimate" myself to club music first so I can have confidence when I go out.

3wishes, I think I can hear the beat pretty well, I just keep stumbling on the whole "don't care what other people think" thing. I mean, if it wasn't for caring what girls think I wouldn't even bother learning to dance! hahaha

Bailamosdance and Wooh, thanks for the tips for club dance. I'll check it out. Actually, youtube was how I found out about pick-up dance haha

Re: hip wiggling isnt the same as dissociation

Hi kk, welcome to DF!

Stiff means, that you cannot move the main body parts independently from one another. This so called body dissociation is less important for some dances, but is very important for all salsa-related dances. Perhaps you can train this ability there.
And watch the following vid
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/08/attractive.dancing/index.html?hpt=C2

How do you dance at a high school dance?

Or just dance in general! I'm so bad I need some help!

Welcome to DF!

Try searching DF for answers and you'll find many threads that have discussed this in the past. For e.g., http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=3151&highlight=prom

You just want to shift awkwardly from one foot to the other, according to the beat in the song, and waggle the arms a bit here and there, that is how you dance at a high school dance. Hope this helps.

^Like

This awesome! Is there anything more consolidated?

I do all types of dance, ballroom, Latin, swing, country, ballet, jazz, modern, burlesque, west African, contemporary, lyrical, and many others. But I just get very uncomfortable with the whole club dancing thing, anyone else feel this way?