Back to basics: The benefits of taking beginners' classes

If you’ve been dancing for a while, you likely look for a true challenge in the classes you take: intricacy and virtuosity in movement vocabulary, big demands on your physical conditioning, and deep kinesthetic and artistic nuances. That’s not a bad thing; in all aspects of life, in and out of dance, we grow and improve by pushing at the edges of current capability (gently and with self-compassion, of course).

At the same time, could we gain something or some things by occasionally taking beginners’ classes? I’d argue that yes, we very much can. Through beginners’ classes, we can reconnect with important aspects of our technical foundation, have time and space to further hone and refine what we already have a handle on, and experience the wonders of a beginners’ mindset.

Back to basics: foundational elements

I recently took a ballet class with a substitute teacher. She focused heavily on port de bras in this class. I didn’t think much of my port de bras before this class – certainly not that it needed significant adjustments! Yet this instance clearly showed me that it needed work, and offered me information to help me to do that refining work.

This wasn’t a beginners’ class, yet it was a clear reminder to me that aspects of technical foundation can be missing: whether never learned or somehow lost. A building can’t stand steady on a shaky foundation, and neither can dance technique. We need to build from the ground up. That analogy might understandably bring up stress and tension for you, yet – in that space of realizing that aspects of foundation are missing – yoga can offer a different approach.

We can blame or judge ourselves for missing foundational elements, or we can put that mental and emotional energy on putting those foundational elements in place. By and large, the latter approach is more effective – and simply feels better! Yoga also reminds us that we can always come back and keep working, keep improving little by little: even if we sometimes feel discomfort through that process (a concept called tapas). We can keep coming back to class and working on our growth areas. There’s no rush!

Time and space to refine: stepping back to step forward

In classes that push you to the edge of your capability, you are – by definition – being challenged. So you could very well be fully focused on picking up quick choreography, trying to figure out how to execute a challenging leap, or simply trying to keep breathing deep and smooth through a combination that calls for significant cardiovascular capacity.

In beginners’ classes, however, your focus can be on perhaps less flashy and more subtle – yet I’d argue, just as intriguing and satisfying – aspects of technique and artistry. You can feel what it’s really like to smoothly articulate through your toes as you brush the floor in tendus. You can clearly feel the arm and leg coordination, and being stacked through your center of gravity, through a clean single pirouette. With choreography fully in your body sooner and more smoothly, you can truly tap into performance aspects like musicality and emotional execution.

This ability – to take time and space to deeply feel and refine nuances of shapes and actions in the body – is always something that I’ve appreciated about yoga posture practice (asana). I love moving fast and giving all my energy in a tricky dance combo, yet that ability to truly drop in – and then feel and respond, with curiosity and care – is another kind of uniquely special. You can experience that in yoga practice (and, I might be biased, but I can’t recommend doing so enough!), but you can also find something like that in beginners’ dance classes.

Beginner’s mindset: coming back to wonder and openness

You may or may not remember starting dance (you might have been a baby ballerina, taking your first classes as a toddler). I remember it, as I was thirteen years old. I immediately fell in love with the art form and wanted to learn everything that I could. I took all possible classes and took advantage of all available opportunities. To me at the time, dance just had a bottomless well of the spectacular, which I could keep experiencing more of with every class, rehearsal, performance, and home practice session.

Starting yoga was similar. I took my first yoga class at nineteen. It was hard, but – for some reason that I couldn’t quite define at the time – I wanted to come back again. And I did, again and again. I wanted to learn all that I could, and just felt a special amazement every time I did learn something new. My curiosity was insatiable, and I was open to all sorts of perspectives.

That is beginner’s mindset. If you don’t remember your first dance classes, there might be another activity or field of study in which you’ve discovered this sort of mindset, and can maybe even remember it now.

Yes, everything has its limitations; with beginner’s mindset, we need to learn to be discerning (so we can eventually come to our own perspective) as well commit to things in a balanced way (in retrospect, in my desire to learn and improve I did overextend myself as that beginning teenage dancer).

Yet, by and large, beginner’s mindset can keep us consistently curious, hungry to learn, and eager to keep working hard to improve. It can keep us humble and grounded, reminding us that we have room to grow – but also that we can give ourselves grace for where we currently are.

Whether we just started dancing last month or years and years ago, we’ve had our own unique path in the art form. That’s brought us to where we are, and all of the wonder which that place holds.

With a beginner’s mindset, we can fully appreciate small improvements, key into important technical nuances, and truly cherish special moments along the way – and just the awesomeness that dance is. Taking beginner’s classes can bring us back to that place, even for a little while: but better yet, at more frequent points as we take more advanced classes and dance harder choreography (“am I really maintaining my turnout here?”, “do I need to work on not leaning back through that quick turn in this fast phrase?” or also ”wow, the detail in this phrase is just so cool!”).

Dancing with beginner dancers can inspire that in us, and we can also feel it in ourselves. Childlike wonder is something that we sadly lose as we grow older – but, with keeping a beginner’s mindset as we dance, we can experience it again. I’m not sure about you, but I want to be in that place of curiosity, awe, and joy. I hope that you’ll join me there!

Comments, questions, et cetera? Please let me know! Email me at mindfulmovers5678@gmail.com, or DM me on any of the Mindful Movers social channels (find those on the “Contact” page if you’re not already following those accounts!). And as always, I share all of the above with all possible loving-kindness and non-judgment. Always wishing you the best on your journey of dance, creativity/artistry, and wellness!

Photos courtesy of the author and Canva