How To Dance Like Nobody's Watching

If you're one of those people who thinks they can't dance, I'm here to tell you that you can. Here's why.

In the dictionary there are two definitions of dancer:

1) A person whose profession is dancing or who dances regularly in a certain style (eg. salsa, ballroom, etc). This is what people usually mean when they ask if someone is a dancer, and why they don’t consider themselves a dancer.

2) A person who dances. This definition is perfectly accurate and more accessible. This is the one that needs to become the default. To dance is to move around to music. Every single one of us is capable of doing that. Some will be more coordinated, more graceful, more in sync with the music than others. But if we stop caring about whether we’re doing it well, and focus on how we feel when we do it, then all those feel-good endorphins that come from music and dancing are suddenly accessible to everyone.

If you want, you can spend many many years trying to learn how to be a dancer in the according to the first definition. But all you need to for that second one, is move to music. You already know how to dance.

"But I suck at dancing! " you might say. And my answer is: why does that matter?

The reason most people think it matters is that we're expected to look good when we dance. But the most important thing about dancing is feeling good when we do it, and having fun. If you worry about how you look and what people think about you, you're not giving yourself permission to have fun.

So the secret to dancing like Nobody's Watching is not learning how to dance better, but learning how to focus on enjoying the experience. You'll learn that by practicing, continuing to show up, focusing on the music and reminding the voice in your head telling you you're a bad dancer that actually, it really doesn't matter.