Ballroom Dance Video

In dance more than in other activities, watching yourself is important. That’s why dance studios are filled with mirrors and why dancers enjoy watching themselves on a recording.

Making Videos for Ballroom Dancing

Making a ballroom dance video, then, is important to the learning process. It’s through watching the video that you can make improvements in your technique.

Why make videos?

Making your own video is an excellent way to really see what you are doing when you’re dancing. While watching yourself in a mirror is good, it’s not the most ideal method to seeing exactly what you’re doing. You can only see so much when you are turning away from the mirror, for example. But when you watch yourself on video, you see exactly what you are doing.

It might be while watching yourself on video, for example, that you see you are constantly holding your head in the wrong position, or that you look less than graceful while in hold. You might be surprised to find that you look better than you thought.

How to watch a video

No, this isn’t a lesson in how to really watch a video, but rather a primer in watching yourself on video. It’s hard to be objective when you watching yourself, since most of us are the most critical of ourselves, but it’s important that when you watch a video of yourself dancing that you look objectively at your strengths and weaknesses.

The first time you view yourself on video, it might seem a little strange, but try to look at the video objectively, as if you are watching anybody dance, not yourself. Watch certain parts over and over gain if you must. Get a real feel for the quality of the dancing you are doing.

Eventually you won’t feel so uncomfortable watching yourself on video and you’ll be able to come to the process with the right mindset – that watching yourself on video is a way to better your dancing.

Who should make the video?

You can make one yourself if you have a video camera and a tripod. Simply set the video camera in a part of the studio that can “see” everything or have a friend do the videotaping for you. If you have a friend do the taping, you can ask that they move with you through the dance so you get a more close-up view of what you’re doing, rather than the more distant view that you will get it you have your camera on a tripod.

You can hire someone to make a video for you and this can be helpful if you have the money and want a video made that’s likely to be of better quality than one you can make yourself.

How can you use the video?

Aside from watching yourself and seeing what you are doing right and what needs improvement, some dancers use the videos they have of themselves dancing to help them find a new partner, to enter dance competitions and to share with other dancers. It’s easy to get many copies made of your original video, so having more than one copy of the same video is a simple and inexpensive proposition.