Thread: How often do you practice???

I am very new and not very experienced at all infact im pretty pants haha but I have been practicing for about an hour a day...sometimes half an hour.

Is this enough and how often do you guys practice??

Its also very hard doing it at home because you don't know if your doing wrong or right...hmmmm

Good for you, Fatinah. I practice about that much. 30 minutes to half an hour 5 days a week is pretty good. I do think, though, also joining a class helps alot.

How often do I practice? I wish I was as disciplined as you.
Short answer: Not often enough. But I'm glad to finally be back in a class!
Suzan

Originally Posted by Fatinah_bellydance

I am very new and not very experienced at all infact im pretty pants haha but I have been practicing for about an hour a day...sometimes half an hour.

Is this enough and how often do you guys practice??

Its also very hard doing it at home because you don't know if your doing wrong or right...hmmmm

When I was just starting out, I would take 3-4 classes a week, practice for an hour at the gym 5 days a week and watch instructional dvd's one the weekends as well as performance dvd's.
I pretty much still do the same thing, except for occaisonal breaks when I have a lot of other stuff going on. ..g.:
It sounds like you are off to a good start though...


I almost forgot. I like to take 4 hour seminars from teachers from other places once a month. That is a good way to learn different techniques and they are usually really fun.

I practice everyday , sometimes 15 minutes just dancing around and sometimes 4 hours if i can.
i would say on average i do 2-3 hours 4 days a week and the other days it depends on my work or family obligations.
and it is never enough : ( i seem to never have time to seriously practice a tribal number i want to work on , or work on tunisian, etc.

I do 2-3 hours a day, nearly every day (but an hour of that is yoga & strengthening). I also go to the gym 5 days a week, and dance class 2-3 days a week.
If you're new, a half hour to an hour is a great amount of time. You don't want to practice too much and burn out.

i do go to class once a week and my teacher is brilliant she is very good at showing us technique. I just wish I could go to a class every day im so addicted hehe

I dance 3-4 hours a day 4 days a week. That doesn't include working out, just dancing.

I go in fits and starts, depending on what's happening at the time. But I always have my "kettle exercise". Whenever I boil the kettle for a drink I work on belly pops or layered shimmies or whatever my current bee in the bonnet is.

These days I supplement with a couple of yoga sessions a week, strength training to protect my not-so-young bones, listen to the music a lot (which is crucial btw, you have to start to "get" the music), stuff with the kids for the mroe aerobic exercise, and at least one dedicated dance session where I'll be working on something in particular.

Actually I guess I'm doing more exercise these days and although it isn't all dance-focused, it all definitely helps.
x

My goal is to dance every day....even if I can only grab 15 or 20 min throughout the day. I need to be more disciplined ..my only real free time is after I get all the kids to bed..and by then I am exhausted and have no energy for dancing..LOL

I'm impressed by all of you who have time to dedicate 3-4 hours a day. I dance an hour a day, every day, unless I can't because of travel etc.. That's all I can manage with my family & full time work. Plus also take 1-2 classes per week.

Well, I wish I could give you a definite answer, but the truth is that it all depends on family obligations, motivation, available time, etc...

Most days I get in about an hour of practice, but if I'm really working hard towards a specific goal, I'll practice up to 6hrs. Some days I don't at all, but at the very least, I'll put on my music and dance around between household tasks.

Like anything in life, you get what you put into it. You won't get really good sitting on your butt, but some people aren't focused on getting great and just want to have fun. Which is totally okay!

Originally Posted by Sonja2

I'm impressed by all of you who have time to dedicate 3-4 hours a day. I dance an hour a day, every day, unless I can't because of travel etc.. That's all I can manage with my family & full time work. Plus also take 1-2 classes per week.

I'm very fortunate in that dance is how I make my living. Between teaching, directing a troupe, and performances, it adds up.

When I was a new dancer, I never practiced.
Dancing was my hobby, once a week was enough.
I gradually started doing more, like taking more classes and being in the performance troup.

One of the reasons I didn't practice was because I didn't know WHAT I should practice. And I probably didn't have the right CDs...
I remember putting on some music and starting to dance, but after a few minutes I was totally lost.
So for me, it was better to take additional classes with other teachers - because even if I'm lazy at home, I never miss a class if ever possible.
And I think as a beginner it's very easy to take on bad habits, so it's better if you have a teacher to correct you.

Nowadays I move for at least 1 hour a day. This can be anything, from dancing to Nordic walking. After all, building up stamina also benefits my dancing!
I go through different phases - for some weeks I practiced my zilling, then I worked through various workout DVDs, then I had to practice some choreographies etc.
That way it doesn't get boring.

I find it easier to commit to 1 hour of practice every day than to think I should do 3 and then find that I don't have the time/opportunity.

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by shimmygoddess

My goal is to dance every day....even if I can only grab 15 or 20 min throughout the day. I need to be more disciplined ..my only real free time is after I get all the kids to bed..and by then I am exhausted and have no energy for dancing..LOL

I'm right there with ya re the kids bedtime thing. It is SO hard to motivate myself then. Both sons are studying drumming at school and so sometimes we mess around in the garage doing strange drum solos and occasionally I can get them doing the yoga stuff. The best time of day for me is first thing in the morning before they get up. But again, it takes a lot to get out of my pit these days.

Originally Posted by Fatinah_bellydance

I am very new and not very experienced at all infact im pretty pants haha but I have been practicing for about an hour a day...sometimes half an hour.

Is this enough and how often do you guys practice??

Its also very hard doing it at home because you don't know if your doing wrong or right...hmmmm

Every day. Its the only way to go.

I try to practice a little every day... but honestly... in reality, its probably about 5 days a week.

It depends on my schedule and whether I have a performance coming up. Generally I have 2 hours of class every week and I'll probably manage another 2-3 hours of physical dance practice at home on top of that. I cross train with yoga for about 2 hours a week and I also try to squeeze in music learning/appreciation time will I'm doing something tedious like washing up.

I wish that I could practice every day but its not practical with my other commitments. I also struggle to learn props because my practice space is tiny.

Glad I am not the only one dancing around my apt every chance i get:)

Just a thought, there is (IMO) NO substitute for a good instructor, but a video camera can be an extremely useful tool for practicing at home, especially once you've been in classes long enough to know what to look for. Helps to me to check if what I see in my head is actually happening. Warning though....if you haven't seen yourself dance... it can be a shock!! so be prepared!!

Good luck!!

I do 4 1/2 hours of classes per week from two different instructors. I have a number of DVDs that I occasionally use at home, but not as often as I should. I also run through choreographies that I'm learning or choreographing, and I review when I have a show coming up (every evening for several evenings before a show). When I have a show coming up, I also dance in my head at night, in bed. That is, once I know the music well enough, I play it in my head and visualize dancing to it, if that makes sense. I attend several mini-workshops per year (not the really big, big-name ones--I don't like those, but ones that focus on specific techniques).

In addition, I go to deep water workout at least once a week. It used to be 3 times/week, but now I'm teaching 2 days per week and I've had 3 big writing projects in the past year. Plus, I have 3 kids (teens now, but they still need to be ferried around, etc.).

That's as much as I can manage right now, although daily practice is my goal. Over the summer, I definitely want to start adding more zill-drilling to my routine, too.

For seven years, back home, I use to take two bellydance classes a week. They were both an hour long. Plus, an hour of ballet a week. At home, I would practice at least an hour a day, sometimes more depending on whatever.

Now I am getting back into the hang of things. I can only practice at home right now, it is like two hours a day. It just is taking me awhile to find a new instructor, because I don't know what part of the city I am going to stay in. So confusing... ,r:;

I can only afford one class per week. But I have more time than $$ so I try to pop in a dvd and learn a coreography or pop in a drills dvd to get those moves in my muscle memory. I go for an hour but if it's at night and all are asleep, I find myself getting lost in it and sometimes 2 or more hours go by. (Especially if I have a couple glasses of wine)

But the norm is an hour. I know heart disease is the number one killer of women so I also run for an hour in the morning. I envy you all who get to take more than one class a week. With gas what it is (I live in the sticks) and ferrying kids to and fro, I am glad to even get to class. I look forward to it all week. I think in another topic Fatinah you mentioned feeling like you are a mess in your classes. I feel that way too..g.: but remind myself that this is my hour and I so look forward to it that I won't leave room for self judgement. haha.

I have the Drills Drills Drills dvd as well as Shamira's The Sensuous workout 2, and Jillina's Instructional bellydance level 1. The last 2 have easy combos to learn and it's fun to actually have something to do when you practice. I am not that free form savvy yet where I can just put on music and dance. But I do now tweak the routines I have learned. Hope that helps.

If I practiced as much as I bhuzzed, I would be really good....

...

Im gonna have to get myself some of these much talked about dvds as I can only afford the one lesson too even though to be honest I wouldnt take an extra one (I did think about it) but it is silly to have 2 different teachers a week when Im very happy with the one I have but waiting a whole week for a lesson seems ages sometimes!!!

Why is it silly to have 2 different teachers in one week? I say do it! The more people you can learn from, the better! A while back I was learning from 3-5 different teachers at one time, and it made my style that much more unique. Instead of unconsciously copying one teacher's style, I had a mishmash of many teachers' influences. It's healthy to study from more than one teacher.

I do think it's healthy to study with more than one teacher, but you can work up to it. Actually at the beginning, it might be confusing to study with multiple teachers at once. It's good to get a solid foundation first.

I practice about 1-2 hours per day. If I have class or rehearsal, sometimes I don't practice that day because there's only so much time. On the weekends, I sometimes do up to 4 hours. I just get lost in it. I expect when I have a kid, this will go down drastically. :-/

In another life I would looove to study multiple times a week with the same or different instructors. Alas...housewifery

Originally Posted by shimmygoddess

My goal is to dance every day....even if I can only grab 15 or 20 min throughout the day. I need to be more disciplined ..my only real free time is after I get all the kids to bed..and by then I am exhausted and have no energy for dancing..LOL

Me too... In fact, I am right now Bhuzzing with sleeping baby in my arms. I drill during daily activities like making lunch for the kids and I run thru' combos or mark choreos during anything that requires a wait-time (like boiling water..l;, ) but actual rehearsal-time tends to be late at night and sometimes is just beyond me. I take 2 to 3 classes a week and work in private sessions when I can or meet a friend to practice before/after classes so I make good use of my out-of-the-house time.