There is always so much hype and preparation in getting ready for an event, whether it be a spotlight dance, your first party, Medal Ball, your wedding day, Showcase, or even a Dance-o-Rama. You make the commitment to “do it,” work hard, make plans, and prepare physically & emotionally to make your dancing and yourself better.

The day comes and goes… and then what? …

It’s natural to want to celebrate after an accomplishment. However, what tends to happen is that celebration can turn into a sabbatical where you lose all the momentum you just created. Whether your event experience was good or bad, here are a few things to keep in mind to avoid the “post-event slump.”

Build Instead of Rebuild

Have you ever had your computer crash on you in the middle of a big project? You spent so much time working on your assignment only to lose all that work in a flash! If only you had saved the files somewhere instead of having to start from the beginning again. (FYI, this even happened to me as I was writing this very blog post.)

It takes longer to recover lost information than it does to keep building on what you already have.

Doing an event is a remarkable milestone where, if you do enough of them, will act as a growth chart to track your dance progress. To your teachers, events are stepping stones to the next “thing”… not the summit.

Even though it may seem like you want a break, your post-event lessons are just as important as the ones leading up to it. Keep your same schedule after an event, or even add one to follow up immediately and continue building. Your progress can only continue to trend upward if the consistency stays the same.

Schedule a Progress Check

Call it a consultation, a critique, feedback, or the greatest idea for keeping your dance progress going. Getting a fresh perspective from one of the studio executives can help you to make sense of what you just experienced and what you may be feeling.

It’s hard to not look at the pictures and videos immediately after an event. One of the problems with this is ourselves… we are our own worst critics! It’s okay to look at your dancing, but don’t let the evil side of your dance brain convince you that you performed poorly. This means that you really care about your dancing and your progress, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of those thoughts you are having are true.

Scheduling a progress check with a studio executive or coach can really help to silence any of those evil thoughts, and help you to make sense of what you experienced and how to continue on from there.

Focus In

There is nothing wrong with taking a few notes about the things you could have done better at an event, but don’t keep that list a secret! Your teachers genuinely want to know your thoughts about what you could improve on. Besides, we are here to help.

What needs to be understood here is what the priorities are in your learning and dancing. Your teacher has a plan for you, and if you have a secret plan for yourself, you won’t make any progress. Communication and understanding is key in this situation.

Often times, we don't realize the priority of what we should be worrying about. This is where your team of teachers and studio executives come in. Not only do they have the prior experience, but they also have a firm grasp of your learning style, progress rate, & short-term and long-term dance goals, and can help to prioritize your concerns to coincide with your dance visions.

Capitalize on the Momentum

We’ve all binge-watched an entire TV series in a weekend, or couldn’t put a book down because it was such a page turner. Why would we dare take a break when it's going so well? Or better yet, why would you stop dancing when you just built up so much great momentum? Capitalizing on momentum is easy when we are doing things we love and it’s all going swimmingly.

Events build up your confidence, enhance your techniques, and increase your ability to retain dance skills to a level that you’ve never been to before. When you see your event like it's the mountain you've just climbed, you may want to celebrate and postpone your dance learning. When you see your event as the first stage in a larger plan, you act on the momentum, see the event success as proof of progress, and allow momentum to take you right into your next objective.

Progress is great… but building on that progress, accelerating into the next stage in your development, and discovering a new version of yourself is a whole lot better!

Our goal for events is that it acts as a propellant for our students. All of the hard work put into preparing, the deep breathing before performing, the adrenaline rush of applause, and the feeling of satisfaction after it’s over should all act as fuel to light your fire and get to the next level in your dancing and in your confidence. You can do anything you put your mind to, and events are all stepping stones to getting there!