How to dance to fast music better

When you start out as a beginner, usually the music is slower with a defined beat. But once you’re into freestyle, dancing to different genres or speeds of music, it can be a challenge to keep up.  There’s various tips you can try to help dance to fast music.

For improvised dancing like modern jive, speed is probably less of an issue than in dances with set choreography. You can decide your moves and speed of dance as you go. Whereas choreographed dances are set, so you can’t have a group of dancers all out of time, whether in competition or something like line dancing. But even with social dances style, dancing to fast music can still be a challenge.

Here’s my tips on how to dance to fast music, or do it better.

The challenge with fast music

The challenge with fast music is how to fit your steps in, and finish the moves. Obviously you’ve got less time to do so, which means a dance can look sloppy and all over the place. For dancers, it’s harder to keep on time, stay with the music, and not trip over your own feet.

In some classes, a teacher or DJ might slow down some tracks, especially if there are lots of beginners. Or they may avoid playing faster tracks at all until dancers are more used to moves (think of beginner Ceroc lessons where usually all the tracks have a similar slow-ish beat). This gives beginners less chance to be scared off and time to practice moves at a more standard pace rather than feeling rushed.

How to dance to fast music

Take smaller steps.  Keep your steps under your body.  This keeps things neat, within your dance space which is important on the social dance floor. And smaller steps means you can keep in time with faster music.

Keep your steps light and on your toes, rather than clomping full heavy steps or sitting back onto your heels all the time. Staying balanced over your toes will mean you can move faster into the next steps

Change the speed of the music while you practice. You can use different speeds of music or use technology to change the speed, and practice drills to get used to dancing basic steps at different speeds.

Simplify your moves. Rather than doing lots of complicated arm work or steps, or throwing the follower into lots of spins, keep the moves simple so you can fit them to the music more easily. (And avoid making your partner dizzy).

Don’t miss out beats if line dancing or any dance that relies on you stepping the counts or keep counting any breathers or holds if you are short-cutting finishing a step to get to the next on time.  It’s obviously less important in improvised social dancing but if you’re dancing with a beginner then you’ll likely want to keep with the beat. Missing out beats increases the change of you rushing.

If you’re struggling with certain moves to music, then drill those at slower speeds, with variations (e.g west coast swing or salsa), so you can amend your basic footwork when faster music comes on.

Get fitter – faster music takes it out of you, so get fitter and you’ll have more stamina to dance.

Know your moves and improve your following. If you know your steps, you can react faster with your movements with less thinking needed. This applies to partner dancing and solo dancing. Being able to react faster to your partner’s lead, will help you both move faster and stay on the beat.

If the music works, slow your moves down. Instead of stepping to the fast beats, step to the half beat instead. Obviously you might want to decide this with your partner beforehand.

Probably one for slightly more advanced dancers, you can shortcut the precise steps in a move if it helps (e.g amend your triple step so it’s a variation rather than having to step all parts of the move). Just keep a watch you’re not skipping over the beats to rush ahead to the next move.

Practice.  Outside of class you can practice fast footwork drills, or even just stepping in different directions to music with a fast beat. While this is specific to Lindy hop, the idea of drills and practising to faster music is the same in any dance style.

How do you find dancing to fast music, and what tips would you add?