Best Mindful Dancing Tips (Less Effort, More Enjoyment)

Do you want to learn to dance better with a dance partner? The solution here is: less movement, more attention. In other words: mindful dancing. Incorporating this into your partner dance will boost the quality and enjoyment of your dance. Read on for all mindful dance tips…

Having to learn all kinds of difficult figures? Quiet & mindful dancing is much more fun!

Do you say: “I want to learn to dance … but I don’t want all kinds of figures, turns and tricks”? Good news: I learned from my dance teachers that all those things are not necessary at all . In fact, less is more. 

Do you feel like you are dancing stiff and stiff and would you like to use your hips more? Also great to get better at that, but that is not necessarily necessary.

All you need is attention to your dance partner and the music, in other words: mindful dancing. Let’s take a look at the tips below for applying this from now on.

Enjoy partner dances, such as Salsa, Bachata or Kizomba? Less is more…

How do you best dance partner dances such as salsa, kizomba and bachata? Do you find these dances difficult? Ballroom dancing, Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Bolero, Rock and roll … Nice to know some of those steps, but you can have fun all evening with minimal resources thanks to the less is more principle.

Think of these as the best tips for learning to dance a partner dance online, such as Salsa. For example at a dance party or to dance with your partner while going out.

Tip 1 – Make mindful contact with the other person

Pay attention to your dance partner while dancing. How?

• Focus on the tactile feelings you get from the other: How does the other feel, how does the other move?
• Also pay attention to the invisible feeling – the vibes – of the other. Feel the other.
• Follow the other, even if you are the leader. Don’t just make your own plan, but adapt to make it right.
• Activate your peripheral vision. See everything the other is doing.
• Do not focus on all kinds of thoughts , but be present in the here and now.  Breathe deeply and just don’t think. Just turn it off and just dance and feel.
• Feel your emotions too. For example, if you feel sad, put that in your dance. Bring in a different feeling and something completely different arises.
• Make vulnerable contact with your dance partner. Be vulnerable with your soul.
• The above bullets were all about figurative contact, but you can also literally make better contact: heads against each other and bodies against each other.
• Trust. Let go completely. Let go completely

From the mind, into the body.

Tip 2 – Do less: just shuffling is enough to enjoy the whole evening

All those twists and stunts, are they necessary? No. The simplest step ever: shuffling. Do you still want a small extension of the shuffling? The Bolero. See the video above.

It is much nicer not to have to turn and spin continuously. In this way I often do maybe only a maximum of three ‘combis’ in a dance. For the rest, you shouldn’t care if ‘something happens’.

Tip 3 – Do even less: stand still

• It starts before the dance. Are you going to dance with someone you don’t know yet? Then ask at least briefly how the other person is doing. This makes a huge difference to the extent to which you can open up to each other.
• Do you want to start dancing? For example with Salsa dancing? First make a connection by standing still together!  Begin in a close embrace. You may start to move by shuffling a bit. Maybe you will do the basic step of the Salsa very slowly afterwards. Stay in place, feel the connection in the hands, do not start any spins yet, turn a little and move each other a little, including the hips and shoulders.
• Feel free to stand still in the middle of the full beat. Maybe just dance to micro muscle movements . So it seems like you are standing still completely, but in the meantime you are moving very mindful at the micro level. This is especially appropriate for dances such as Kizomba.
• At the end of a song, you stand together in silence. So don’t stop abruptly.

Tip 4 – Listen to the music… but how? Do this simple ‘move’: just stand still!

Dancing becomes 10 times more fun if you also listen to the music in the meantime. But then comes the question: ‘What do I have to do to listen to the music? How can I dance to the music exactly? ‘ That’s not necessary! All you have to do is pause when the music pauses.

So: is there a break in the music, because after that a new chorus or verse starts? Then pull your dance partner towards you and just stand still together. That silence is precious. You are extra alert in that silence. That silence is the magic of the here and now. When the music resumes, start moving again.

Tip 5 – Listen to the music … by following the bass

What is one more way to listen to the music? A way in which you get a sense of rhythm, learn dance rhythm and can keep the beat? Listen to the percussion – and then really just the bass. Grab one of the previous tips from this article again so that you shuffle or do the Bolero, and always take a step at the same time as the bass part.

Tip 6 –  Seek eye contact and make the other person laugh

This tip is not called: Make eye contact all the time. But do: Seek eye contact. Dancing is a fun and sweet thing – and not a creepy staring competition. The aim is not to force eye contact with the other, but to invite the other in a playful way by constantly seeking eye contact – and sometimes keeping it there for a while .

Now you keep sending out invitations – not orders – to make eye contact. The moments in which you do have eye contact are extra surprising and fun in this way, so that the other person will enjoy – just like you.

I mainly use this tip when I do a spin. I then, as it were – just before I start a spin – just ‘goodbye’ by really looking up my dance partner’s gaze.

However, if you are also in a romantic set together, you can also test what it is like to have continuous eye contact – with or without your sweet faces against each other.

Tip 7 – Mindful dancing? Control every movement

Every step and every movement is fully controlled! You enjoy every millimeter you move and you enjoy the control you put in everything.

As a beginner, I think this is the most important component of a fun dance. Thanks to this tip, the very first, ‘simple twist’ I learned in my Salsa lessons is going to be super fun every time. I can fully control that turn. Why? It is mindful to discover what every turn feels like, while your full attention is on the turn. Every turn – however simple it may be – becomes a unique experience in this way.

On your luck!