Join The Conversation: What Makes A Great Dancer? - Energetiks Blog

Bill Davies (Coach and Adjudicator)

Physical and mental superiority.

Pierre Dulaine (British Exhibition Champion and Adjudicator)

Good physical attributes.... both in looks and physique. Co-ordination and a natural ‘feel’ for music. Therefore, if one can start learning to dance at an early age, (ten or eleven years old), co-ordination and the learning of music will develop side by side.

Elizabeth Knoll (U.S. International Standard Champion)

I think that there is no such thing as a natural dancer. No one is born knowing the physical disciplines required by any dance style. There are definitely people who have a natural aptitude for movement, and a ‘feel’ for the music. But all dance is trained skill.

I certainly feel that early exposure to music and movement by aware parents helps. Children who have a studied knowledge of music, and who have been fortunate enough to see dance from an early age, understand the correlation of music and movement. There are different parts of the brain that process artistic information differently. Some people have the ability to translate that easily to physical movement, and some don’t. My mother, a former concert violinist, is a lovely dancer. My father, an accomplished singer, pianist and trumpet player, has twelve left feet. My brother, a trained musician with a natural ear and talent also for math, is a graceful and stunning athlete with some dance background. I am a trained pianist, didn’t start ballroom dancing until college, but have found a niche for my natural musical and artistic abilities.

I believe everyone can understand artistry, but those who are more, shall we say, ‘practical’ in nature may have some difficulty. To make a blanket statement, engineers and mathematicians (people who deal on a daily basis with the tangible world) put in greater effort to learning artistic movement than those who are of a more aesthetic nature. (Having said that, I have always enjoyed teaching engineers the most! They have a greater conscious desire to improve, because they recognize the challenge of learning something foreign.)

In summary, the attributes that ‘great’ dancers have are no different than from those who are not ‘great’ dancers. Commitment, devotion to the craft, and intelligence are not exclusive to anyone. However, the one thing that puts a ‘natural’ dancer aside is that truly natural aptitude for movement to music. To a certain extent that can be taught, but to have it develop to its highest potential requires the elusive thing we call ‘IT.’