Recently I was lucky enough to work with Ilya Rezin (Rhythm champion and judge!). I had never worked with him before, and I was excited for my session with him, especially after watching him win with numerous students at past competitions I’ve attended. After a challenging, but invigorating, hour-and-a-half session, he was kind enough to sit down with me and answer some questions around competing.

Leading up to a competition, what advice do you have for people to prepare whether it’s mentally or what to focus on?
“Just do rounds. Rounds and rounds and rounds and rounds, because most of the time the problem at the competition is that with the increase of stress you lose stamina. Once you lose stamina, you can’t keep going. There are a few problems. Number one is floor craft. People are not used to it, so you need to train floor craft. If you don’t have a crowded floor when you do rounds, you can put 20 balloons on it and turn the fan on, and then avoid the balloons. That’s problem number one, so you can train to that. Number two is stamina. You need to do rounds and rounds and rounds. The week before I wouldn’t suggest changing anything. I would just suggest running through your choreography. Make sure it’s in your muscle memory, and make sure you can do it whether you’re tired, early, late, regardless. If you don’t like to be in front of people, then make sure you invite people to watch you do rounds.”

What do you look for when you’re judging?
“I’m a technician, so for me the most important thing is your ability to fill up the music. You’re dancing to the music, so you should be able to dance to the music not with the music or next to it. I will look at your ability to use the legs to transform it and your ability to bind yourself within the two counts. You should show exactly how much it takes you to get from one foot to another, rather than just doing the foot action and walking through it. I look at musicality; then I look at footwork and your ability to go off the standing leg versus just slapping the feet around. The third thing I will look at is your isolation and body movement. If you’re a female, I will look at how your back is moving, because for me, it’s a clear indicator whether you know how to use your sides or not. If the back stays flat while you’re dancing, then that tells me you’re not really sure how to use your center.”

With regards to what you should wear at a competition, in your opinion, what do the best students in this country look like?
“Well they look like pros.”

And what does that include?

“It should include your hair style, your makeup, your tanning, your shoes, and your dress. It’s a visual sport, so you get judged by the way you look more than by the way you dance. You can dance like a pro, but if you’re going to look like a beginner then you’re not going to get marked or you’re not going to be able to present everything as a package. It’s a package deal, so the way you look is just as important as the way you move. I think that the best way for the beginner dancer to place well is to wear an expensive dress, because the point of the dress is to hide all the imperfection and reinforce your assets. You want to show off more of your assets and hide your liabilities. That’s the point of a dress that’s done well. If you don’t move somewhere (on your body), then a little fringe here, a little fringe there, and oh my gosh you’re moving. I think you need to invest. I think it’s just as important as investing in lessons.”

So there you have it! Some expert advice from one of the top rhythm dancers, and excellent insight into what judges look for in students. Tune back in for my advice on how to look professional without breaking the bank and for a different perspective on judging from the one and only Johnathan Roberts! Until then, happy competing and happy dancing!

As promised, I’m excited to share with you another coach interview! I recently had the joy of working with an amazing coach, Mikolay Czarnecki. He had a great perspective to share on some of my rhythm routines, and while he was in the studio I asked him to share his perspective on how to make the most out of coaching.
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What advice do you have for someone to make the most of their coaching? How would you recommend preparing for a coaching?

The Basics
“I don’t think, generally, you need to prepare. You cannot be scared of taking the coaching. You should be excited for learning something new, and you cannot be afraid of making a mistake on a coaching. You’re getting some information that is new, and one suggestion that I have is to not overthink. When you hear information, you actually have to take it and understand what the coach says. Like if he says, ‘Take 3 steps forward,’ then you take it in your head and say, ‘OK he said 3 steps and he said forward.’ So, just physically try to execute the 3 steps forward. No matter how it feels, just take 3 steps and physically feel it. Some problems with the step or how you do it may be very complex, so there are stages of learning it. So in the 1 coaching lesson, you can get through the 3 concepts of 1 movement, but you have to try to physically execute the information you hear. So let’s say you do the 3 steps, and then the next concept is do the 3 steps, but do them all on the toes. Then the next concept is: the first step is on the heel then the next 2 steps are toes. I don’t care how you actually execute it, meaning if you wobble or not, but you still do that heel and then toe, toe - even if you stumble. That’s what I would generally say. You cannot prepare yourself generally, but let’s say you’re going to take a lesson with a coach. You need to practice what you’re going to work on before, so when you come to the lesson you don’t have problems with the routine or some stuff because that’s an additional stress. If you don’t practice, you’ll be focused on what it [your routine] was supposed to be, so then you don’t think about how to execute the step and what the coach wants you to do. That doesn’t work. Especially if you’re working with coaches you’ve never worked with before, you don’t know what to expect, so in the back of your head there is sometimes coaching that you’re not satisfied with in the end. That doesn’t have to be the student’s fault, but it can actually be the fault of the coach. The coach could be an amazing dancer, but he doesn’t explain or teach clearly. He asks you to copy the movement, but you still don’t understand the concept of how to do that step - how to copy the step. So it’s not being scared and have expectations of the coach, but not of yourself. Just go there and basically do your best. That is my suggestion.”

For Advanced Dancers
“For advanced dancers, the explanations are more detailed, so if I work with you, and come back in 3 months, I expect that you’re going to work hard in between the coaching and try to execute whatever you heard the best you can. If not, then of course nobody’s going to yell at you, but deep inside the heart of the coach there’s a disappointment. I haven’t felt that many times, but that happens even with my own students. I know when they practice and when they didn’t. Even when they practice wrong, I can see that they tried to do something about it and then I can always fix it more easily. If you don’t do anything then I need to start from the beginning.”

In Summary
“So that’s just my suggestion; don’t be scared, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced. There’s no difference between the two; it’s basically the same. If you’re taking a coaching, you want to improve your dancing, so you should be excited about it. If it’s a good coach, and they explain enough, then you should feel really good. Sometimes you have a bad day, but [if you] still take the coaching with your teacher, then the teacher will remember. Even if you are falling off your feet and it’s a bad day, still try to do your best. I’ve had a situation where I go to a coaching and nothing comes out, and I get pissed off and it just goes downhill. My coach will stop me and say, ‘Listen, OK you have a bad day. That’s OK, it’s your decision.’ I just told a student it’s your decision. Either you can make it worse, or you can make the best out of it. So that’s my view.”

Bonus: Physical Preparation!

“It’s important to physically prepare, too. Stretch. Go through the motions of the dances you’re going to do. Go through the basic motions of the dance you’re doing and the routine if you’re working on that. Make sure your body is warmed up whether you do stretches or some cardio or go through your dance.”

Last month I had the pleasure of coaching with Alexandra Perzhu (Smooth and 9 Dance Champion if you aren’t familiar with the Pros yet). Coaching with her reminded me of my very first coaching experience and how terrified I was to work with a Pro I had never met before. Fortunately, my instructor pushed me to get over my fear, and I discovered how wonderful it is to work with amazing coaches. Before I jump into why working with coaches is so wonderful, let me first explain what coaching is.

Coaching Defined
A coach is someone, other than your instructor, who works with you on your dancing. Typically this person joins you and your instructor during your lesson, and can help you with technique, provide another perspective on areas you may be struggling with, or give you some new choreography. Sometimes coaches can be other instructors at your studio, or your studio may bring in professional dancers or judges to do coaching sessions.


Benefits of Coaching
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing coaches who have given me exciting, new routines, demystified some steps that just wouldn’t click in my head, and introduced me to new techniques that magically fixed areas I had been struggling with. Rather than going on about my personal experiences though, Alexandra was kind enough to give me an interview about why she thinks coaching is so important. So here, in her own words, are the benefits of coaching as explained by Alexandra Perzhu!

Why is coaching important for a student?

1. To have a mediator: “I used to be a student, and I’m still a student, and I know how much it means to me and why I believe in coaching. So from a student perspective, my answer would be to have a mediator between my partner and myself. To hear a common knowledge about something and a common explanation, because when you work with each other for a long time you tend to have tension about how you understand things. So when you have someone experienced come in to coach you, first of all, you have a certain respect and certain open mind because it’s new information, and you start to see a different point of view. Every coach has a very different way of explaining the same concepts - with different words, different images, and different personality types. So any coaching lesson you have to be smart and see, ‘OK that coaching really didn’t mean that much to me or didn’t do very much to me, [so] maybe that’s not my type of information that I need to do. Basically it’s all about that 3rd eye who is a mediator for me.”
2. To have an outside perspective: “A coach sees something from the outside…that you cannot see yourself. You have to be open about it, and realize, ‘Ok I didn’t do that,’ and then sometimes you will think, ‘Oh I did it!’ and then they are like, ‘No you didn’t.’”
3. To hear different viewpoints: “I think every coach has something to offer. I’ve had numerous coaches, and one coach was very good about footwork. The other one was good about connection. The other one was such a beautiful dancer that when I would watch it would give me such a full picture. I would be like ‘Oh I want to do that.’ It would inspire me. Some people are very good about telling the story behind the dance or behind certain concepts, so you get inspired by thinking about all these things [and] how they come together. Every person teaches you something different, so I think everybody should take coaching lessons. Not only for the sake of learning something new, but actually to have a healthy process and have that mediator between you and your partner.”

Do you have any advice for somebody who’s never taken a coaching and doesn’t know what to expect?
“I think coaching lessons should be done at any level of dancing. For example, I had a student who was dancing with me for a couple of years and then I took him to a competition. We started doing mambo, and I didn’t prepare him very much, so…[he] stumble[d] through the steps. Then we had a coach come to the studio, very famous name, Rufus Dustin. He worked for a Fred Astaire chain studio for many, many years, plus he’s been a champion in so many styles and divisions. He actually gave him (my student) a story about mambo, and gave him that whole (full) explanation, so by the end of his explanation my student had a much better understanding. Even without drilling all the actions, even though he wasn’t that experienced in the body movement, the story helped him to understand much more about the dance. So try it. It never hurts to try. Be open minded; let it happen. It’s an extra investment, but you realize that it pays off.”
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Hopefully I’ve convinced you to take advantage of the great opportunity it is to work with a coach! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us, and stay tuned for more exciting coach perspectives over the next few weeks!