| So you think you CAN'T dance? Well, you may be | | | | of a number on the right note. But that was dancing to |
| right - but it's more likely you're wrong. Dancing is a | | | | British and American music with 3/4 and 4/4 time |
| basic human activity that mankind has enjoyed since | | | | signatures. Faced with 12-beat flamenco rhythms, I |
| earliest times. And you won't find many toddlers who | | | | was completely lost! I realised my rhythm wasn't |
| say they can't dance. We learn to get uptight about | | | | natural or inborn at all. I had to learn those flamenco |
| dancing as we grow up! | | | | rhythms over time, and it was hard work! |
| Just like sport, you have to believe you can dance. | | | | So if you feel you have no rhythm, don't just give up. |
| Saying "I can't do it" just guarantees that you can't! | | | | Listen to music - as much of it as you can. Whenever |
| You also have to understand that as we grow up, we | | | | you get the chance, try clapping along in time to it. If |
| learn set ways of moving. They're not the only ways | | | | you have videos of bands, play them watching the |
| of moving, but your brain thinks they are. It will take | | | | drummer. Try to clap along to his rhythm (because you |
| time for your brain to register that these new-fangled | | | | know he's got it right!). Ask a rhythmic friend to |
| movements are OK, and to work out how to do them | | | | practice clapping in time to music with you. It will take |
| comfortably. Be patient with yourself! | | | | time - be patient. |
| Possibly the biggest problem is rhythm. It's a myth to | | | | I'm sorry to say, but there are some people who |
| say that a sense of rhythm is something you're either | | | | genuinely have no rhythm - and if you're truly in that |
| born with, or you're not. Rhythm is something we learn, | | | | category, then perhaps dancing really is beyond you. If |
| mostly unconsciously, as we grow up. | | | | you can't keep time to the music, no matter how well |
| I had a lesson in this when I took up flamenco. I had | | | | you do the steps, it can't really be called dancing - and |
| always had an excellent sense of rhythm. I was | | | | you'll never be able to join in with other dancers. But |
| always right on the beat, I could identify the start of a | | | | bear in mind it can take months to get a glimmer of |
| phrase without thinking, and I could pick up in the middle | | | | what rhythm is all about, so don't give up too easily! |
