5 Free-Spirited Resolutions for Dancers

With the new year just around the corner, the dancer in you may be contemplating what new horizons to meet in 2025. If you’re looking for goals that are untethered to accolades and statistics, here are 5 different dancing resolutions you can consider, as you turn to your newest chapter yet. 

1. Dip your toes in a completely new genre

Here’s one for the experienced dancers! A lesson you have likely already mastered is that becoming good at something takes practice - lots of it. Those of us who have spent years building our foundations in a particular genre may forget how comfortable (or shall I say, conditioned) our bodies have become to fulfil the demands of that particular artistic genre. 

Sometimes, for the sake of humility, fresh perspectives, or simple fun, it’s worthwhile to experience being wondrously clueless beginners again. Try signing up for something you might have never imagined trying, even if it’s just for one class! If you’re a Latin dancer, try Hip Hop! If you’re into Ballet, try Tap Dance! The pairings are endless. 

It might be scary, awkward, or embarrassing at first, but you’re likely to come out of it feeling proud of yourself. Who knows? You might find a new hobby, or even bring influences of the new dance into your existing practice! Either way, embracing learning, diversity and versatility could never be a regrettable adventure. 

2. Explore your mind while dancing 

So often, we associate dancing with the body - and understandably so. Yet, dance has a profound impact on our psyche, and it applies the other way around, too. The dance studio is as much a gymnasium for our mind, as it is for our body. If you sometimes feel like you’re dancing for the sake of moving, or that you’re hitting a plateau in your practice, cultivating more mindfulness could be your resolution for this year. 

Try turning dance into a reflective, “minds on” practice. Pay attention to the feelings that arise as you dance. Perhaps there is apprehension when learning a new step, frustration when you make a mistake you’ve never made before, joy when you’re performing for a cheering audience, or pride when you finally get that step right. 

If you want to go one step further, pay attention to the thoughts that accompany these feelings. Do you ever hear yourself saying I’m not good at this, or, How come everyone else gets it so easily, or, No matter how much I practise, I’m not going to be like that person? 

In my opinion, none of these feelings or thoughts are inherently good or bad. They are simply messages for our minds to decipher - they are there to teach us about ourselves. Start by noticing these mental and emotional messengers when they pop up, and acknowledge that they’re there. You may even want to thank them for being there. After this, it may be helpful to remember that no matter how good or bad a feeling feels, or how convincing an unhelpful thought seems, it won’t last forever. 

Holding space for the ups and downs of our mental and emotional landscape - and exploring it with curiosity rather than judgement - may not be easy, but as with everything else in dance, it does get better with practice. Give mindfulness a shot, and you may find that it makes you a more resilient, intentional and substantial dancer, without ever exerting you physically. 

3. Choreograph something! 

If you’re someone who enjoys learning routines, but have rarely or never tried creating one yourself, this is your sign to try it out! On the other hand, if you’re someone like me, who loves to choreograph, our challenge could be to try choreographing to music that we usually might skip over. 

Choreography requires you to peruse your repertoire of movements, make selections or adaptations, and often match it to a song of your choice, not unlike a jigsaw puzzle. It gives you opportunities to make creative decisions - Which parts of the music do you want to embody? What kind of character are you playing? How do you want to tell the story, if there is one? 

It tends to be an iterative process, going back and forth to edit or refine parts, so that they fit into your vision better. If you’re feeling extra bold, try teaching your choreography to others! Having to transmit your ideas to other dancers is a challenge all on its own. The reward at the end is amazing though - something that used to exist only in your head, would now be seeing the light of day! 

Go on, create something uniquely yours. 

4. EXPLORE body conditioning

Becoming a better dancer is not just about turning up to every lesson, remembering  the choreography, and taking notes on the technique. After a while, without conditioning our body to augment dance training, our improvement can often feel hindered. Have you ever felt like you understand the action in your mind, but can’t execute it in your body yet? That’s where body conditioning can help.

This might feel counterintuitive at first - if I want to be a better dancer, shouldn’t I just dance more? Well, yes, but you shouldn’t only be dancing. Think of conditioning as side quests that grant you access to power-ups in your main adventure. If you only explore the side quests, you probably won’t get too many levels up. Yet, if you ignore the side quests completely, you’d miss out on a lot of helpful boosts that propel your level forward. A healthy balance of both is most ideal. 

If you’re not sure where to start, consider choosing one area of focus first. Perhaps you’d like to condition your stamina, or flexibility, or balance. Get in touch with other dancers or fitness trainers to see what they might recommend for your chosen area of focus.

Alternatively, in today’s digital age, try exploring the web for free resources! There are many content creators focusing on dance body conditioning, any one of whose pages would be a good place to start (some creators I follow on Instagram are movementbydavid, dance_with_lizzy and delaney_train, among others). Let the work that you put in when you’re not dancing show, when you are. 

5. Have fun! 

Those of us who have dedicated months or years of our lives to honing a craft can more often than not fall prey to forgetting how fun the craft itself is. We may get swept up in the next technique to master, or the next championship to prepare for, always keeping an eye on the next hurdle to jump.

Such drive and focus is admirable, no doubt, but taken to its extremes, it can cause both mental and physical burnout. We must all know someone who has gradually grown disenchanted with the thing that once brought them great joy, only to quit it altogether. 

If that’s something you’d like to avoid on your journey, remember to savour the road, not just the destination. Give yourself permission to let go once in a while, to have fun with your dance buddies in the studio, to do silly things in the middle of serious things.

If, like me, you find it hard to relax and take it easy when you’re doing something that means a lot to you, this could be a resolution we embrace in the coming year. Remember:

So, what new experiences are you going to embrace in the coming year?