Practice tips for a tiny space

Let’s face it, most of us rarely if ever get to do our personal practice in a nice, big studio. If you’re lucky, you might have a room in your house dedicated to dance, but if you’re like me, you make do with your living room. After years of dancing in living rooms, and a few instances of trying to squeeze daily practice in while staying in a hotel, I’ve come up with a list of advice.

1. Be aware of your space. Know how much room you have and where your obstacles are. You don’t want to knock things off of shelves with your veil, or spin into a couch. You may also have to be aware of pets or small children wandering into your dance space, so be careful and don’t get so into your practice that you don’t notice that the dog has just laid down in the path of your traveling turns.
2. Decide on the best use of the space you have. If you’re in a very long, narrow room or hallway, now is a great time to practice those traveling turns I just mentioned. If you’re in a tiny hotel room, you can work on drilling isolations. A sturdy chair can serve as a barre for levels or port de bras style arm practice. Cushy carpet may mean that spins are out but floorwork is IN.
3. Mark your choreography. If I’m working on a choreography or structured improv that involves a lot of traveling or turns and I’m not in a space that I can do it, I mark it out. I take the steps in place, or turn under myself, while visualizing how far I would travel if I was on stage.
4. Make your space as dance-friendly as you can. Can you move the furniture, roll up the rug, close a door to keep away the outside distractions? Can you make bigger changes over time, such as replacing a dangling light fixture with a flush-mounted one and ripping out the carpet in favor with a nice bamboo floor?
5. If at all possible, occasionally treat yourself to some time in the studio. There are certain things I just can’t do with my fan veils in my house! For a while I had a weekly rental at a local studio, and I used that time to practice fan veils, traveling turns, work on solos, get uncluttered video of myself practicing, things like that. I was really sad when that studio closed, let me tell you! A weekly practice was great, but even if you just get an hour a month, it’s nice to have the time with a good floor and good mirrors and enough space to spread your wings.
6. Remember, the most important thing is that you’re practicing. Doing drills in your tiny living room in front of the TV is better than not dancing at all. Do the best you can and you’ll see results from your practice. Remember, you can even drill chest isolations, snake arms, and zils while sitting in a chair (or you can balance a prop on your head!).

Do you have any favorite small space practice tips?

Administrative note: For the next few months, this blog will update on Tuesday and Friday. Beauty Blogging for Belly Dancers returns this Friday.