Those mirrors. They are all over those damn dance studios.
Taunting you. Telling you you're not the fairest in the land.
But that's just your brain talking.
Sometimes you need to ignore your brain and use your EYES.
Your eyes will tell you mirrors are helpful. It's almost like someone put them there for a reason.
Mirrors are on walls at dance studios so you can look at what you're doing and do it better.
Let's say you're the average Joe and your teacher tells you to put your arm like *this* [teacher says *this* while showing you what it should look like].
You are like, "Yeah, yeah, got it, Teach [psssht, so easy]" and proceed to do exactly *this*.
But then you happen upon your reflection in Those Damn Mirrors and your arm looks NOTHING like *this*.
DAMMIT.
The problem is, most of us have no idea what our bodies are doing.
How many times have I told people to take a "side step", and then had them look at their feet to see it was not at all sideways? ONE MILLION.
How many times has your instructor told you to have your arm horizontal or above? How many pictures do you have of yourself with your arm below horizontal? ONE MILLION.
How many times have you seen yourself in the mirror and realized you're not standing up straight? SOOOOO MANY.
Our proprioception sucks.
However, once you get to the point where you know what looks good and what doesn't (which is surprisingly early in your dance career), by looking in Those Damned Mirrors, you can make adjustments to make yourself more fabulous. You can keep an eye on your partner to make sure you're matching when you're supposed to be matchy-matchy. You can see when your shoulders start making out with your earlobes in promenade position. You can see the line you thought felt kind of wonky looks pretty wonky, too.
It's like watching your competition videos, except for free... and with less alcohol involved.
Stop listening to your brain. Listen to your eyes. Look in the mirror and get better.
