It varies, and by a lot! I don’t really have a standard practice session. It really depends on how early I woke up, what I want to work on, etc. And, of course, with the injury, everything is off-kilter.

I’ve been trying (in many areas of my life, not just dancing) to focus on a minimum level of compliance*. i.e., set a reasonable, achievable goal, try to make it a habit, and not stress about doing anything beyond that. I often end up doing more than that, but I’m not obligated to, and I don’t get any bonus points for doing it (and no get-out-of-jail-free cards to use on another day). The only reason to do more is because I really want to.

For dancing, my minimum level of compliance is 15 minutes of active moving time. About half the time, I am running late, and that’s all I can spare, but about half the time, I do more: 10 or 15 minutes more is usually the most extra I can spare on a normal day (if I don’t want to be late for work), but when I’m having a really good time, I’ve been known to go an extra two hours on an evening or day off.

It took a while to make peace with such a low number, but over time, I accepted that I get more practice in if I do at least the minimum every day than if I lame out several days a week because I can’t face the 90-minute session I think I should be doing (but would never expect of anyone else). Once I got over that, having a trivial-seeming minimum helps take away the “shoulds” and the guilt that make me more likely to procrastinate, just like days off do.

All that said, class is where I do most of my work. I take two to three hours of class a week, and teach for two hours. I lead my beginners through plenty of basics drilling, and get more advanced drilling and topical instruction in the advanced/pro class I take. So my practice time is mostly the equivalent of spot-toning: working on little things that I want to clean up or develop, or exploring new styles/ideas, etc. If I weren’t in class so regularly, I’d have to block out evening time to do longer practice sessions.

* the idea of a minimum levels of compliance is from Reinhard Engels of everydaysystems.com

But I’m wary of short dance sessions. it usually means no warm up and i don’t want to hurt anything at my age. Nevertheless, i glute-isolate or belly-silate all the way to work in the car.

How long are your proper practice sessions?

mala

Here are a few things that make my practice sessions more likely to happen:

- make sure that everything is ready before I go to bed: dance floor cleared, DVDs or CDs located, dance clothes laid out.

- Sometimes I also make little bargains with myself: if I get up on the first alarm and dance for at least 10 minutes, I can go back to bed for a little more sleep if I really want to. Once I get moving, though, I don’t want to stop.

- Even if I do oversleep, I try to get a tiny bit of practice in, even if it’s just a 10 minute shimmy or arms drill in my pajamas. (And if I’ve been having a particularly tough week, I’ll sleep in my more comfortable exercise clothes, so I can jump right out of bed and go up to my studio room.)

- I sneak in a little practice here and there: a bit of shimmying while doing the dishes, a couple of belly rolls while sitting at my desk, glute squeezes on the escalator (only when wearing a loose coat!), wrist circles and hand undulations as a break from typing, etc. It can’t replace a missed session, but it still helps.

- I take regular days off. Regardless of what else happens during the week, I don’t have to dance on Saturdays and Sundays. I *can* dance if I am irresistibly called to the studio, but I am under no obligation to do so, and doing it on a weekend doesn’t let me out of my weekday sessions. Taking a break gives me a rest, and being unashamed about it relieves a lot of the pressure. So when I go into the studio on Monday morning, instead of feeling like a lazy, bad dancer with a lot of catching up to do, I feel like I’ve taken good care of myself and look forward to dancing again. Give it a try sometime! It doesn’t have to be weekends, two days in a row, or two days a week; any regularly-scheduled rest will go a long way.

I cruelly turn it silent lately, one can always call back right?