The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Help me be better at clubbing
Chen
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
to impress the ladies!
Moving my feet is fine and everything, but every time I flail my arms it's awkward and frankly kind of embarrassing. How do you guys do it without looking like a complete tool?
Moving my feet is fine and everything, but every time I flail my arms it's awkward and frankly kind of embarrassing. How do you guys do it without looking like a complete tool?
Chen on
0
Posts
The moment you come to grips with that is when you'll start feeling more comfortable and having fun.
Being drunk helps. What sort of clubs are you going to, how old are you, where are you? It always helps to look at what people around you are doing. Frankly I can't dance well enough rhythm wise to make clubs any good for me if it's the kind of place where i'd actually have to try to sexily gyrate with a woman if things are going well. But up to that point, just being confident and having a good time is important.
If you're just going to meet girls and you're not having a good time with your friends, your desperation is going to be palpable and you won't get very far, and you're not having a good time with your friends to boot!
This comes with the general club dancing advice of 'everyone looks like a dork anyway so do whatever feels good and at least be an enthusiastic dork.'
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
alternatively,
Don't dance.
At least try. You get brownie points for trying. Everyone likes brownies.
Mmmmm, brownies...
Yeah, I have an aversion to dancing so I'm somewhat biased.
I'd rather just walk around and talk to random people.
The guy has some good advice. Pay special attention to what he says not to do. You aren't there for a dance competition.
Just move with the beat, keep your arms loose and below your shoulders, knees bent, and make eye contact with people.
No speakers at work, so can't really watch the video, but what Figgy wrote out actually does work just fine with dance music. You really don't want to be doing much with your arms at all - my hands rarely make it above waist level, and never above my diaphragm unless I'm taking a drink or scratching something/running a hand through my hair.
Why not? You're moving to the beat of the music. Unless we're talking shirtless men with glow sticks and trance, that video holds true.
Like, seriously better, or 'just not embarrassing'? Dancing is an extension of body awareness. Become more aware of your body, and that awareness presents itself. If you're flailing about, you're probably not all that connected with yourself. Growing that awareness takes time and energy.
Firstly, practice. Find a mirror, or a window where you can watch yourself. Getsum beats. Take a look. Does that look retarded? K, then don't do that anymore. Less is probably more.
Second, feel the beat. You need two primary lines of tension when working with arm and legs, the first extends from about an inch above both palms and connects them together, through your wrists, into your biceps and shoulders, across your chest or upper back (it'll shift) and down the other side.
Tense your muscles until you can feel this line, invisibly connecting all of your upper body together. Feel how moving one side affects the other side. Play your muscles against themselves. You can exert a lot of effort hardly moving at all. When you can control this effort, this becomes a source of power you can use and even radiate. Visualize yourself in your mind, tensing up the different muscles one by one, squeezing them tightly for several seconds. Every degree of movement, up, down, circles, forward back, has its own group. Everything connects. Develop independant control over each group. Become aware.
When you have that sorted, extend your practice over each muscle in your body. By itself, and with its twin on the other side. Flex and move in pairs, find the counter-tensions that prevent them from moving. Run through the full range of motion, keeping things tight. Practice until you can do this with every movement your body makes; it is the key to internal power and fluidity.
Fluid motions are not 'slow', they are counter-balanced and carefully controlled. Obviously you can't control something you're not aware of, so see step one. The amount of tension and effort you place controls different visual aspects. You can take a loose (tension) line and snap it tight. You can move softly, and then with blinding speed. Although learning awareness takes time and focus, soon the feelings and movements will become instinctive, and you can match a mood or feeling or internal expression smoothly and naturally.
Thirdly, the next line of tension runs from your head through your chest to your core. Again, you should be able to feel and flex (with small motions) each group independantly. Keeping a line through your core, with your torso and tummy firm and ready at all times, allows you to shift weight and motion through your body easily. This extends to the hips and legs as well, though the lines are often considered 'gravity lines' i.e. where your center of gravity is that needs to be supported or shifted. You can in fact, plant your feet and give the appearance of motion, as long as your centre and gravity lines are changing.
After a while, and hours and hours of practice, you'll be able to move fluidly according to impulse and desire. You'll bounce to a beat. You'll be able to 'see' the music with your body. Your hands will find places to be as your body moves with that beat. It will look natural, because full body awareness demands that certain things be certain places if you'd like to do certain things. It doesn't actually matter what style you choose (it doesn't even have to be dance), these are the universal basics.
How did good dancers get good? They danced. A lot. With a focus on improving. Good movement abilities and body awareness translate directly into key signals given to those around you. You look good because you are that good, end of story.
-
TL;DR
The short path is to join the little circle dance thingy and keep your hands just above waist level as if you were going to snap your fingers to the beat. Work in a little shuffle step, don't try anything fancy and bob your head with a smile.
Treat dance like a skill and practice it, go to a club with mirrors and dance on a regular basis. Dance until you are dead tired. Learn the basics of counting music. Move your body, not your head.
Alternatively, take a dance class. Since you're talking about upbeat dance music ecstatic dance is probably the ticket for you. There's a certain type of lady who fucking loves that kind of dance.
Watch michael jackson videos.
fun's a weird word. fun fun fun
Take enough drugs to take the edge off, that's all! don't get wasted in any form.
Go to the club that plays the music you like best. That's all you need. Dancing is best when you're more involved with the music. Don't settle for going out to the 80's retro club because it's all the rage these days when what you really want to hear is some House (or vice versa). People dance to almost any kind of music, really, so just find a place that plays what you like.
If you don't like the DJ, then go somewhere else next time (though, it is possible the DJ is a guest or just visiting). Conversely, keep track of the DJ's you like and try to see those when you go out.
For the club itself, bigger isn't always better. A medium-sized bludgeon should get the job done. Wood is more satisfying than metal, I've found.
Much like golf, follow through with your swing. Don't raise too high... maybe a few inches above your shoulder... then let gravity take control from there.
... Wait, what?
Oh, oh... clubbing.
Be yourself
Idiot.
We're talking about making clubbing fun. I have always found satisfaction in the loud sound of a flat surface. The flatter is better. Start with a regular caveman-esque club, move to a hockey stick, then a cricket bat, then a canoe oar. You will find your satisfaction increasing proportionally to the projectile arc of the seals skull.
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
I'm glad other people beat me to this joke response, because now I don't have to worry if it's infractible.
PS4:MrZoompants