I took (5) 1:1 dance privates with Francesa Miles over the past few months in 2025. Reflecting on that experience, while there are quite a number of dance exercises that I found useful, three in particular stood out to me, two of which I’ll share below.
Exercise 1 – Randomly selecting a “foundation” and pairing it with a “quality” of movement
In this exercise, we randomly select two sticky notes, one green and one yellow. The green sticky notes are labeled with dance moves (e.g. pas de bourree, train, farmer); the yellow, quality of movement (e.g. contrast, explosive, turning). After pairing the two sticky notes, you dance a round (e.g. 1 minute) with the move with the quality of movement layered on top.
Exercise 2 – Cues to repeat, develop, change speed, reverse
In this exercise, you freestyle for a round and throughout your round, someone shouts one of the following cues: repeat, develop, change speed, reverse.
- Repeat – you repeat some movement in your dance (e.g. shoulder shrug, a step, a twist)
- Develop – you build on top of the movement. For example, smaller to bigger, energy change, intensity, texture, level
- Change speed – do whatever move either slower or faster
- Reverse – do whatever you are doing but in reverse order / backwards (e.g. pas de bourree backwards)
A python program to randomize the cues
During the practice sessions in which I am practicing on my own, I will use one of my software programs, like the one below. When this (Python) program runs, it will play a recorded voice (from Francesa herself) and for random bursts of time. It’s almost as if you have a person there with you in person, shouting out cues.
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