Searching for techniques and dance teams you are interested in on YouTube is easy.
Even the genres that you have never done or steps that no one around you can do will come up with the search results. Getting lesson videos are easy too. This is very convenient.
For those who are new, YouTube's lesson videos are very appreciated as a foothold to start dancing.
But in fact, a native person needs proper tips to learn dancing from YouTube. If you make a mistake in the beginning, your move will look off for some mysterious reasons.
So this time, I will introduce the important points on how to begin dancing on YouTube and take it to your best advantage for beginners.
Be careful when starting dancing on YouTube
I used to practice on YouTube; stopping and playing the video again and again thousands of times at the beginning. There are good and bad I have learned over the years. So I will write here based on that experience.
Basically, YouTube learning is about going down the self-taught path. There are too many ways it could go wrong. In order to avoid feeling regret in the years ahead after hours of hard practice, I will introduce parts to be cautious about.
Instructions by well-known dancers are not always top notch
Some of the video courses may be taught by a dancer who is famous among anyone who is interested in dancing.
People will find such opportunity to learn the professional techniques valuable. It looks impressive and very attractive. But for those who have not built up foundation and experience, it is hard to understand many nuances experts mention. The learning methods taught by the top players may not be the best materials available for your first class.
In addition, it is quite another skillset to move your body and explain to people what you are doing. They might not be good at delivering knowledge in words or in a properly broken-down guideline. If you select the videos by a famous dancer or by the one with the most views, you may not be able to understand the teaching, or simply end up feeling confused.
Tricks & choreography become too attractive
Most people who want to start dancing have strong desire to do tricks like finger tutting or follow choreography from the Beyonce music video.
That is ok as an inspiration to get started.
But, those specific moves are usually better off as the goal lines of dancing.
At first, it is better to learn the basics, remember the steps, and gradually familiarize your body with some of the easier techniques. Yes, they can be hard and sometimes dry (foundation makes learning to dance difficult). But rather than jumping ahead blindly, you will become better step by step in the long run.
If you are a beginner and even self-taught, your admiration precedes your actual ability, and chasing the goal line from the get-go becomes too tempting.
It is understandable. But hold that excitement. Spend enough time on the foundation, and those actual moves come to you naturally.
2 types of videos: introductory and commentary
The video title may contain "How to" or "Learn". But they can as well be introductory that shows briefly the outline such as flow and entrance.
What inexperienced people are looking for is how to practice. Which points you should be keeping in mind not to make mistake. Those are the stuff people starting out are looking for.
The important part is how to do it.
Practicing with the introductory videos that are missing that key part will provide little value. Let's go find the commentary videos.
Videos that target the true clumsy are rare
The decisive point whether you become better at dancing depends on your motivation and practice time. That is the basic assumption. As mentioned in "Dancing is not only for the athletics", your physical ability when starting out is not at all important in a long term.
Having said that, there are still individual differences in the time required to remember one skill over another.
You might find some move particularly difficult. At those times, what you need is a detailed video that breaks down every beat and explains the concept slowly.
Because of the nature of YouTube, most videos are compacted into a short period. There are only a few courteous videos that are slow-learner friendly.
Tips for beginners to start dancing with YouTube
Since the beginning of the article, I have introduced only negative information. The focus was towards people who have rarely touched on dancing. Once you have stepped out onto the actual practicing, the following article is for you.
Let's try it! Here are the tips on using YouTube for those who have already started out.
Search for as many commentary videos as possible for the basics
As mentioned above, solidifying the foundation works out to be your best strategy in a long term.
In dancing, things like counts, musicality, and isolation are the basis. Isolation in particular is what differentiates you from an amateur dancer and the confident. Let's first go looking for these commentary videos.
A point to be cautious is that even though they are all foundations, those are difficult to teach. You should search for multiple dancers/uploaders for the same content.
It will be easier for you to practice in the future by exposing yourself to various teaching methods and meeting people who will teach you in a way that suits your style.
Aim techniques that are doable rather than impossible
As mentioned above, it is not recommended to challenge hard tricks and flashy choreography right away.
Grasp the foundation firmly at the beginning, and on top of that, you can build skills that are likely to be possible at your current level.
It is more enjoyable to increase your skillset one by one that can be actually done rather than challenging the difficult and giving up feeling crushed.
There is a sense of accomplishment as the skill accumulates, and the usage of the body improves in the process of gradually stepping up the game.
Put some time without cherry picking
Especially in the beginning, it is important to master the full feature of each technique into your repertories.
When immediately moving to the next video after practicing one move, you will inevitably forget the core next time.
Let's practice carefully with the intention of mastering it to the extent you are no more awkward from the dancer inside that video.
Because there is no teacher, you need to pay extra attention to the pitfalls
Although video sites seem effective at first glance, it is difficult to use it as a foothold for inexperienced people to start dancing without any attention.
"From where do you get your hands dirty?" "What kind of training method should you do?" These are valid concerns because you are approaching new field without prior knowledge.
It is very tempting to begin with the tricks and choreography that you want to do. But at first, let's begin by searching for the videos for basics practice to the point you are almost sick of them.
At the same time, there is no need to panic when you hit the wall. You might have learned the gist, but it might not go as well in practice. If you fall into that situation, I would always recommend to step back and fix/improve your foundation level. That is a sure way to benefit you for the future.