5 Habits of Highly Resilient Dancers 

The importance of resiliency is sometimes overlooked in dancers starting their dance journey. The truth is, it’s one of the most important factors in achieving your dance goals. And it matters both on and off stage; it encompasses your mental strength, your recovery, and your overall consistency. 

We’ve noticed these 5 habits in some of the most resilient dancers we’ve had the pleasure of working with. 

1. Habit 1: Mindset Warmup 

Warming up the body is only half of the equation. The human body can do truly amazing things, it is the mind that sets limits. It is just as important to warm up the mind as it is to warm up the body, doing so helps you to filter criticism, apply new information, and to continue working even in the face of adversity. A very effective way of doing this is to ask yourself insightful questions prior to dancing. Here are just a few questions that will really help you to center your mind: 

• What is my main focus for today’s practice? 
• How do I want to feel at the end of the lesson? 
• What changes would I like to make from the last lesson to today’s lesson? 
• Am I prepared with questions and/or goals for my instructor today? 

Habit 2: Post-Practice Reflection

The way you handle the moments after your practice can tremendously affect your emotional balance and mental toughness. It is easy to get caught up in the small details of the day, what mistakes you might have made, what you need to improve on, and your overall feelings and emotions about your dancing. Taking a moment after your practice to reflect, reassess, and plan for next time is key to developing not only resiliency but for creating a strategy. Here is a sample of a post-practice routine you could try out after your next lesson: 

• Spend 5-10 minutes doing a proper cool down. During this time you are focusing on caring for your body, doing things like static stretching, foam rolling, doing myofascial release, and gently reviewing any sticking points from throughout the lesson. 
• Spend the next 5-10 minutes writing down everything you want to remember. Even if you think it is something you won’t forget, write it down. This simple act solidifies the knowledge you just gained and ensures you are able to pick up where you left off during your next lesson. 

Habit 3: Preparing between the lessons 

A significant amount of resiliency is developed in the discipline that is required between practices. Resilient dancers are not only resilient mentally, they are resilient physically. This is developed by focusing on internal and external wellness. 

Here are a few habits the most resilient dancers incorporate:

• Ensuring restful and restorative sleep. Your sleep not only impacts your physical recovery but it is essential for cognitive function. Helping you to focus better for your next lessons while helping you to retain the information received from the previous lesson. You should take your sleep as seriously as you want to take your dancing. 
• Cross training with physical activities that support the body in what you’re asking it to do while dancing. This might look different for each dancer, but this typically will include things like pilates, resistance training, mobility training, stretching, and endurance training. 
• Focusing on recovery. Skipping proper recovery is a big mistake some dancers make and it can really negatively impact progress. To encourage proper recovery, you’ll want to incorporate things like deep tissue massages, physical therapy when needed, sauna sessions, proper supplementation, and stress reduction. 
• Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet: For dancers, food is fuel, what you consume can largely affect your dancing. A good diet will help you with concentration, energy, recovery, and overall complexion. A sub-par diet will leave you feeling drained, delayed, and distracted. The choice is really yours. And resilient dancers know how to choose what they want for the future and make healthy choices even when it is difficult. 

Habit 4: Evening wind-down 

What dancers do at night does truly impact their dancing. Here is a list of some things resilient dancers avoid when winding down at night

• Endlessly scrolling on social media 
• Not sticking to a consistent sleep schedule
• Comparing their dancing to other dancers 
• Eating high sugar foods before bed 

Implementing just a few of these habits can significantly impact your resiliency when it comes to dancing. Resiliency and overall mindset is something that can be overlooked by dancers but it is often the missing link for the progress. And we’re here to help you along the way to help support your resiliency throughout your dance journey!