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.
Practicing dance has started to both look different and feel different. That is, the way I am approaching dance practice changed (I think it will continue to change change and evolve) based on both recent conversations with Kev (aka DJ Renegade) as well training directly (both group and individual) with him.
I’m inching close to 3 years into my dance journey and I’m starting to feel another leap in my dance. It’s on the cusp. I can feel it. More specifically, only now am I really able to tell when I am “on beat” and certain movements that I’ve struggled with, movements I’ve actively avoided, are finally clicking in to place. Most notably, the farmer.
What’s changed recently?
On less thinking, more doing
I’m thinking less. Perhaps, I’m no longer overthinking (or if I am overthinking, I am doing it less, so net win overall). In the past, I would during my individual practice, I would often stop myself multiple times throughout a session, analyze the video, make micro adjustments. While this analytical approach can be useful, I also think this interrupt filled approach has one major drawback: reducing the volume of work, reducing the number of repetitions.
On qualifying the statement of “shortcuts”
“There are shortcuts”. And then he’ll qualify his statement. “There are no shortcuts, for the first couple years. Just grind.” While I do value his expertise, and while I still will follow his guidance, I do think that beyond drilling, there’s other elements of dance — my dance — that I don’t want to neglect; in fact, I want to nurture them, specifically the creative aspect.
Practice Log Notes
How did I train yesterday?
Booked a studio (new studio: studio 7) at Unit3 – 1.5 hours for 13.50 GBP
Tuesdays have become my training days. 4pm-6pm, my own organized Tuesday Training session. Following that, 7pm-9pm at Kev’s Kitchen. And though today is today, I am sitting out due to a hamstring injury (more about the injury over at Stretch Therapy Forum)
Because I’m nursing this injury tonight, I decided to try and spend a few cycles re-watching my own dance rounds from last week in spirit of improving my ability to self-analyze and provide self critique.
Why review my own rounds?
Although I continue to train and practice, I think it can be helpful to sometimes pause and check in and reflect. I admit, I sometimes have a tendency to focus only on areas of growth while ignoring — an unintentional self invalidation — some of my progress. But I digress.
Because I am relatively early in my dance journey — about 2.5 years in — I’ve relied on classes, mentors, teachers, instructors etc to help guide me. While I will continue leaning on this different paths, I also want to increase my own ability to (lack of a better word) judge where I am at, identify where I fall short, and then construct a plan to train and practice.
Rinse and repeat.
So, for now, I am going to leverage what I learned from the book Think Breaking and analyze my own rounds and also analyze some other dancer’s rounds that I inspired me. My thought is that if I pinpoint some quality in their dance I like and then if I notice it’s absent from my own, then I’m on the right path of improving self-analysis.
And while there are many facets of the dance to analyze, I’m going to (in spirit of time) focus on on Dynamics. Again, there are many other parts of the dance I can dive into but because I’m new to evaluating my dance using this framework, I want to first familiarize myself with the terminology and semantics etc.
Kev’s Kitchen
Round 1
My intention of this round was to incorporate the exercises we had been drilling for the hour leading up to the cypher, the drill focused on stepping flat footed with full force, as well as stepping on the ball of the foot.
Towards the end of my round, I attempted to change the rhythmic pattern and increase from “on time” (i.e. every quarter note) to “double time” (i.e. every eighth note) but eventually fell off beat — definitely a stretch for me. When I took this experimental leap, Kev said “too much too much” and that’s to be expected. A little embarrassing on my part but I don’t shy away from doing “too much” because, even as Kev said, it’s easier to go “too much” and pull back.
(Body) Physical
Dynamics
Contrasts – although I vary the speed/velocity of the step, there’s a lack of contrast in terms of energy; similarly, unlike Gabby’s round (see below) there’s not this consistent contraction and expansion like quality, going from slow to fast, smooth to sharp, small to large
Round 2
TBD
Rounds that inspired me
Gabby’s Round 1
Dynamics
Contrast – she starts off smooth with her steps and then after a few counts, transitions to sharper, staccato like movements. Similarly, when she extends her limbs, she often changes from short distances to long distances. Yet another form of contrast: she’ll sometimes contract and dance smaller and then explode and expand.
Today, I had a 1:1 dance private with Francesa Miles and while the initial agenda she had initially stitched together had us focusing on use of space — which we did go over — the dance lesson took an unexpected turn and I learned that some of the recent critique I’ve been receiving around my transitions (from one concept to another, or from one movement to another) stems from avoiding the discomfort of boredom. In addition to this realization, I also learned the power of creating mini games that serve both as a constraint and as a fun objective that also ends up manifesting some desirable movement qualities.
Main takeaways
When thinking about engaging the chest and torso, consider engaging the back of the torso, the shoulder blades, an area often overlooked
Create little objectives, games that can spark or motivate certain movement qualities
Experiment with permitting myself to experience the feeling of boredom at least a couple times before transitioning from one movement or concept, to the next
Follow up
Double time a step and accent every third step
Double time consists of 16 counts and with a movement (e.g. pas de bourree) that consist of 3 steps, we can perform the movement 5 times and gives us one (half note) count before we return back on the “1”
Tuesday training has been more or less running consistently every Tuesday for about 6 months now. Apart from the time period in which I was visiting the states, I’ve hosted this weekly session.
And yesterday, I considered cancelling the session on the morning of, considered refunding everyone their 4.00 GBP because my right foot developed a blister that caused me to wince even when applying the slightest amount of pressure or weight.
Although I have no doubts people would’ve totally understood and extended compassion had I cancelled the session, I feel a certain responsibility to keep the training running and at the same time, it’s a part of the day that I very much look forward to for multiple reasons.
Trying to explore other options instead of cancelling, I momentarily considered designating someone else — perhaps Aubrey — could run the session. But in the end, I made the choice and committed and satisfied with the decision.
Yesterday’s agenda
Warm up (shake it out) – a limbering exercise that I’ve come to love and I draw inspiration from Francesa Miles, who showed me this same exercise during our 1:1. Gives me the opportunity to, at least once a week, identify tension my body holds and to release it.
Foundation latter and repetition exercise – there’s 6 foundation steps/moves and we start with the first one, performing it for (2) 8 counts. At the end of that sequence, we tack on the second foundation for an additional (2) 8 counts, then “move back down the latter” and repeat the first foundation. We continue to stack additional moves at the end of every sequence and constantly move back up and down the latter.
A (light) circuit – jumping jacks, lunges (for them hip flexors), partner planks, skate jumps, burpees
Rhythm exercise #1 – we form a big large circle and each person takes a turn clapping a rhythm (for 8 counts, though we normally 4 counts) and then the rest of the crew dances and matches that rhythmic pattern
Rhythm exercise #2 – formed groups of 3 and each person would take a turn dancing an 8-count rhythm, repeated twice, and then the rest of the observers would guess the rhythm
Combo exercise – each person comes up with a (1) 8-count combo and then would freestyle in front of the group for about 40 seconds and during that time, inject their combo into their freestyle with objective to get other people to correctly guess their combo
Exchange in small groups – in spirit of increasing the amount of time for people to dance, instead of a single large cypher (sometimes we still do this, when the group is small enough like 4-5), we formed 3-4 circles with 3-4 people each
On clapping for 8 counts instead of 4
Intention setting
At the beginning of every session, I ask every person attending what their intention is for joining, why they are here today, and what they might want to get out of the session. Like other previous sessions, there tends to me shared objectives and yesterday was no exception:
Simplicity
Turning inwards
Breaking out of default patterns
More expansive
Extension
Practice taking risks
On breaking out of default patterns
I no longer view the behavior of falling back to “default patterns” — movements that we often see people repeat in their freestyle dance — as something wrong or pathological. In my opinion, the repeated movement patterns form part of our identity. Secondarily, from a compassionate point of view, I think our patterns provide a safety mechanism, a sense of competency. Nothing wrong with that. At the same time, this implies that freeing ourselves from these default movements adds some discomfort. As such, for me, there’s a small desire to feel feelings of discomfort since that may serve as an indicator of growth.
Evaluation of my own rounds
I’m becoming less and less surprised with the fact that often, I’ll feel or think a round of mine isn’t “good” but when watching back, I’m quite pleased with what I see (of course, the inverse is true sometimes as well, where, in the moment I think it feels good yet when looking back, I cringe).
Round 2
It’s apparent to me that something is working or a combination of somethings are working: from a compositional perspective, elements of my composition have improved, most notably turns and (my desire) misdirection. These qualities are most evident in this round where, somewhat intentionally, I would deliberately disrupt the flow when performing a turn in order to redirect the turn in the opposite direction.
When watching back the video, I giggled when others playfully laughed when I performed my combo (from the previous exercise) since I had more or less, very not subtly, cued everyone that my combo was about to be injected by me clapping.
Decided to focus on Physical Qualities, expanding variety and vocabulary, by directing my attention to one move: salsa step. When I’m practicing, often so many thoughts tend to distract me and what I found particularly useful was leveraging the mirrors hanging up on the wall and with the erasable marker, writing down both
1) what I want to work on and
2) what I am actually working on.
Although I sometimes stick to the former, I often will relegate control and follow what comes up organically.
What got practiced
Direction changes with the salsa step, turning both left and right – reminded of Kev’s comment from last week, about working on one’s weaknesses
Double time of salsa step
Observations
Looping double time transitioned me into a flow state, albeit how short
Established two “checkpoints” when performing the double time of the salsa step – on the “and” of the three, I initiate the salsa step on the opposite side (i.e. if started on the right, then we now step on the left) and on the “6” I begin terminating the sequence on the same side
Practicing the sequence (double time) at half-speed proved to be helpful – the memory of Rommel sharing (during the battling workshop that took place a couple weeks ago) that he regrets not spending more time practicing moves at half-speed lingered in my mind
Felt confident breaking away from prescriptions of how double time “should be” done – On the last count of an 8-count, I deliberately did not step on the “and” of “8” and instead ended on “8”
Maintaining a groove (hip swaying), while difficult, helped keep me on time when performing double time
Summary
Last night, I experienced (yet again) flow state: not too difficult, not too easy. Initially, double time for salsa step was frustrating, to the point of overwhelm. Aware of my tendencies to rush through this difficulty, I slowed down and was able to oscillate between a variety of speeds, slow and fast.
On Friday evening, August 22, I last minute minute to sign up for a workshop hosted by Alba and Princess, the workshop centered on freestyle dance: freestyle development, introspection, and connection. I was motivated to attend the workshop for a couple reasons. First, I simply wanted to dance, to move my body — not train — but just connect with myself. And having been to their previous workshop, felt the workshop’s environment would be a great atmosphere for turning inwards. Second, I consider myself an active member of the London freestyle house dance community and when I see other members of the community — Alba in this case — I want to show up and support them.
Now, like any 3 hour workshop, there are a myriad of lessons we were taught and I want to enumerate a few exercises that resonated with me, ones that I’ll likely incorporate into my own dance practice
A few exercises to takeaway
The eyes track what body part you are moving
Strike a pose and keep your arms in a fixed position while other parts of the body (e.g. torso, legs) move around those arms
Set intention with the eyes
During a round, breathe through the nose, then through the mouth, then hold the breathe
Of the three, I would say that the most profound impact was the third exercise: setting intention with the eyes. Presently, I’m recognizing (and I’ve also been told in my feedback) that when dancing, often I am concentrating so intently that I end up (not intentionally, but as a byproduct of focus) hold tension in my upper body and my neck. And while I am lately directly releasing tension by actively relaxing, by adding a bounce, I also noticed that by simply intentionally directing my gaze on some part of the room (e.g. ceiling light, door knob, hinge on the door) that when I end up performing a turn, there’s much less tension being held in my body, including my neck.
Coming in a close second is the strike a pose and maintaining a fixed point with the arms. This was the first time I’ve both heard of this exercise and attempted it and believe that I can probably apply this concept into my own freestyle rounds and as a constraint, the exercise can actually help unlock some creativity as well.
Finally, Alba had shared an exercise less focused on composition and more on increasing one’s awareness of their breathe. During this particular exercise, we were prompted to dance and then she would cue us to either 1) breathe only through our nose 2) inhale through nose but exhale via the mouth 3) hold the breathe. I noticed in both my movement and noticed while observing others that, when we start off breathing through the nose and transition to exhaling through the mouth, the movements become more elongated. And another observation is that I likely sometimes hold my breathe because it became obvious that when holding tension, the quality of the movements become more staccato, more jerky.
Summary
The overarching theme of the workshop was what I would consider the double “C”: choice and commitment. For all the exercises (ones listed above and even the ones I didn’t share) revolve around these concepts. The two are essential ingredients, in my opinion. Sometimes, I myself make a move in my freestyle dance but it’s often not conscious choice. And as far as commitment of that choice, I think it influences perceived conviction — confidence — communicating that although you may not know where the movement choice may lead you, you’re confident enough to commit.
Last night, I practiced at home for about 45-50 minutes, from the comfort of my own living room. I approached the solo practice session with some grace, my body still sore from the Tuesday’s Training session as well as the hip-hop class (my second one, from John Graham). Despite the muscle soreness, I was able to move my body and the intentions I set out last night were to practice the following:
Alternate rhythm for pas de bourree – over the past (3) private dance lessons I’ve taken with Francesa, we’ve been practicing switching between the kick and snare. One way to transition is by applying a “1+2+3” rhythmic pattern. So on top of throwing this (pas de bourree) rhythmic pattern in my round, I also wanted to incorporate an additional pattern “1+2+3+4”, followed by a drag and sweep movement. I would say that for these three “chunks”, I’m now in the skill execution phase and would like to practice deliberately injecting them into my freestyle rounds
Double time rhythm (on beat) transition to “On Time” – I’ve struggled with dancing double time because I had found it challenging to maintaining a bounce, my internal metronome. But it appears that the act of practicing (despite not immediately getting the movement) has someone reduced the difficulty of the exercise
The train movement – I really love the aesthetic (and sort of the sensation/feeling in my body) when executed by others and only up until recently do I feel my body (more specifically: my hips) can handle the load and so now I am practicing injecting the train into my freestyle rounds
In addition to practicing each of the individual tasks above, I am taking Jo-L’s advice and attempting to “chunk” them together. That is, when I’m able to (without errors) consistently perform the “chunk”, I then try execute a subsequent chunk and build a string of chunks together. In addition to stitching chunks together, he had also suggested that when errors or faults show up, to pause in the moment, instead of continuing executing the move. The reason being that we may unintentionally repeating those faults.
Was given a task to analyze some of my favorite dancers and attempt to articulate what specifically it is about their dance that inspires me. Although there are two more dancers I’d like to analyze, I’ll start with one of my favorites: Yugson. Over next few days, will update this page with some others.
Yugson
One of my favorite rounds that I used to watch on repeat
Below are some questions (along with my answers) asked by Francesa in preparation for our upcoming 1:1 dance private scheduled this Friday. Also included a couple of my favorite dance clips that inspire me.
What are 3 house steps that you are comfortable with and use frequently?
Pas de bourree
Loose Leg / Chase
Cross Step
Shuffle
What are 3 house steps that you struggle with or tend to avoid?
Farmer
Skate
Train
Sidewalk, Salsa (and others that I’ve practiced that sometimes don’t make appearances during rounds/sessions etc)
Can you identify what in particular you struggle with for those steps?
Falling off beat (exclusively with the farmer)
Not quite aesthetically where I want it to be (Skate / Train)
Inability (or have not yet attempted really) to convey different rhythms beyond the foundational, syncopated rhythmic pattern
Develop a groove (where I doing more dancing than steps) that I can dance and intertwine these steps with
Often forget that I’ve even trained these steps and thus rarely come out
Who are 3 house dancers who inspire you or whose style you enjoy? So difficult to name just three so going to toss out a few more at the risk of violating the constraint in the question 😊
Brian Green
Kwame
Yugson
Rick Indigo
Shan S
J Soul Zuberi
Rachad
Can you identify what is about those dancers that you appreciate?
One common theme is the beautiful simplicity in their movements
Ability to dance both masculine and feminine energy
Laid back while also energetic and crisp and clear
Versatility and their ability to adapt to different types of (house) music
While the steps are “beautiful”, the ability to gracefully move other parts of the torso
Is there anything in particular you’re really keen to get out of this initial session?
Curious to hear your observations from the past 3 weeks of Kev’s Kitchen
Incorporating double time without looking or feeling so robotic
Turns and space without looking robotic / stiff in the torso
From the wide array of “elements” (e.g. levels, space, rhythm, musical, isolation, footwork) how to manage training routine and practice and develop them over both the short and long term
