Starting Dancing?

Question

As a theater performer, I feel I need to learn to dance well; in the productions I've done with dance, I have so much fun and love it, but I've never actually studied it. At age 14, what should I start with for musical theater-esque dance?

Answer 1

Ballet is of course the basis of all dancing, but since you are 14 and have a pretty focused idea of what you want to do, and want to get results quickly, I think you can skip it.
If you want to learn a lot for musical theater in the next year, I would concentrate on jazz dancing and tap.
Swing dancing would also be very helpful, because it is a living jazz dance tradition and is pretty common in some areas. A lot of jazz dancing is incorporated in swing. If you can, learn some routines, like the Big Apple or the Shim Sham. They have instructional dvds on both. idance.net has a whole section on vernacular jazz as well as the charleston. Here's my advice:
1. Find a jazz dance or tap class (or a swing class if you can't find one of those).
2. Go swing dancing socially at least once a month.
3. Get an instructional dvd to learn some routines or more moves.
4. If you can, find a partner and learn some aerials, these can be directly translated to musical theater.

Answer 2

Jazz would probably be a good place to start. Do you have a local theater company? We do and they are actually offering beginning dance classes for people who want to get into theater or dancing or performing or just for fun. Look around and see what you can find. At 14 you are still young enough to learn a lot, take that which interests you most, or take a couple of different classes. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Jazz, tap and ballet are always good to start with, it's like the basis of all dance. It really depends on the musical, one day you could be doing a modern show with hip hop dancing and the next day you could be doing a classical show where ballet would be good. Hope this helps! :)

Answer 4

Ballet is the basis for every dance no matter what you do ballet is disciplined and what gives you the skills for ane other dance. after that try things like modern and jazz definitley if ur thinking about theatre/musicals maybe try contempry because thats quite passionate and obscure which will help you to prepare for challenges. hope dis helped GDluck!! x

Answer 5

Waltz is always a good rhythm to learn. The song "Could I Have This Dance" by Anne Murray is an excellent waltz with a very strong rhythm.

Answer 6

Ballet and Jazz are great to start off with! In fact...some studios even offer Musical Theatre dance! So check around at different studios to see what they offer! :)

Answer 7

ballet