what style of dance should i take to have a great footwork for my martial arts training?

Question

footwork for martial arts

Answer 1

If you are looking to improve speed, balance, flexibility, and agility in your footwork, dancing may help a bit. Ballet, ballroom, etc., will all work. But it's nothing the diligent practice of your chosen martial art doesn't already give you. If you are looking to put power in your kicks, strategy in your walks, traps in your steps, impact conditioning in your legs and feet, and time coordinated attacks with your hands, dance lessons won't be much help.

Answer 2

Dance?? How can you dance when you don't have good footwork, balance and coordination to begin with?
What you are really seeking are personal skills and attributes that need to be developed BEFORE you do anything else.
I think some basic exercises like stepping and sliding, circular stepping, walking on a line on the floor, standing on one leg would best serve your footwork rather than just dancing. If you have two left feet to begin with, you'll be sloppy in dancing as well as martial arts.

In traditional martial arts, you can usually break them down by two categories - hard and soft styles. Hard arts are usually direct, linear, powerful styles like karate, TKD, some styles of Kung Fu, Muay Thai, etc.
Soft styles are more receptive, circular and flowing in movements. Tai Chi, Judo, Aikido are some good examples.
Depending on what type of style you choose, you will have to develop that particular type of footwork for that specific art. Dancing alone may not help with your particular footwork, but it might develop grace, balance, flow that could be beneficial for you. Jean Claude Van Damme studied ballet as well a karate, probably explaining why his kicks are so incredibly graceful. However, there are billions of martial artists out there that have never touched a day of ballet in their life. That means their skills came not from dancing but intense development through other avenues.
Can dancing evolve from martial arts? Sure. Breakdancing came about from the mimicked movements of capoeira.

Can martial arts help with dancing? Sure...
I know for a fact from my own personal experience, studying Aikido has actually made me a better ballroom dancer. Aikido is about circular energy and flow and it's movements mimic the elegant flow of ballroom dancing. You don't go against your partner, you flow with them.

Hope this helps. Again, dancing alone will not necessary develop great footwork in martial arts. These are attributes that should be cultivated through exercises and drills.

Answer 3

Ballet. You may really want to not do it, but it does help out a lot. Patrick Swayze, who maybe an actor, but is also an actual martial artist, took ballet for a long time when he was in high school. Jean Claude Van Damme also took ballet for footwork and flexibility, this made it so that he could easily kick a 6'3" person in the face while keeping one foot on the ground. And he is only like 5'10" tall himself, picture that.

Answer 4

I'm going with what David said Tap Dancing. The greatest boxer ever Ray Robinson tap danced as a youth,

Answer 5

That's because you probably used the kitchen sink tap you fool, everyone knows you're supposed to use the bathroom sink tap so you can use the toilet bowl as a safety net to catch you if you fall.
adi, why don't you try Capoeira instead, so you learn how to dance and defend yourself at the same time.

Answer 6

Tap dancing will improve your speed and precision.

If you are taking Taiji, try ballroom dancing.
Ballroom dancing will improve your skill in sticking and following which you use in Push-Hands.
.

Answer 7

as silly as it sounds ballet ..now start dancing twinkle toes

Answer 8

i thought tap dancing but when i tried it i fell off the sink and broke all the dishes.

Answer 9

polka...nobody ever misses with a man that Polkas

Answer 10

ballet!?