It's the little things!

Why is technique so critical to mastering just about anything? Performance is so much fun, it's the practicing I don't like! Can you just hear that coming out of every home that has an artist of some sort in it!

Yesterday I had a little glimpse of learning technique. Of course at this stage in the game it wasn't the first time I had a ring side seat! Yesterday was watch night for Renee's dance class. I have experienced alot of "dance watch nights" since Renee was 4 and each time I watch I am intrigued. Dance is one of those things I wish had been available in my town growing up! I think that I would have loved it. I love to dance, of course no one will ever see it. It is something I do when no one is watching! But if I could grow up in more recent times dance would have been my sport of choice.

But like anything, if you don't grasp the technique you won't master the recital. Why is technique so very important? I don't buy into the concept that practice makes perfect. I say, practice makes consistent. What you do in the practice time you will do when it matters, if it is good technique, good performance, if bad technique, bad performance. Of course to the non-trained eye, it all looks good especially when it is your baby on the stage!

Yesterday I noticed some things at dance class. Rarely have I seen dancers use the bar on the performace stage. Ms. Smith grilled these girls yesterday. They worked hard off the bar. What is done on the bar will come out on performance day! Flexibility, height, free standing, leg lifts, belly in, no mercy! She demands excellence. I like Ms. Smith!






They worked solid from 4:30 till 5:30, no break. Constant motion, technique drilled into their heads. Discipline. What is really neat about dance or any discipline sport is just that. Technique requires discipline. Somehow I think the disciplines that Renee is learning through dance, art, and violin is carrying over into her studies, her Bible reading, her structure for the day. Nothing wrong with that!

Technique is:

1. the nitty gritty! Who likes to practice over and over one little measure, one little step, one little thing that is not even part of the performance routine yet because of the technique the jump is higher, the legs are stronger, the arms are higher.

2. is the "stuff" you do FOR performance day but not necesarily ON performance day! It's the little things that make the big things stand out. It's the small stuff that makes the big stuff great!

3. is the badgering of a teacher, a mom, a dad, a tutor, a mentor. Don't quit! Do it again! No, that wasn't right! You can do better! Whatchu thinking! Do it like this! Don't you remember how I showed you before! You have gotten off track! You are building your own template not sticking to the original one!

4. not glamourous! It is the sweat, blood and tears that make you a master at something! Technique is laborious. It is not easy. It requires all your will power.

5. defines the piece. Whether dance, music, teaching, writing, technique defines the piece. If the technique is really good, the untrained eye doesn't notice. If the technique is bad everybody notices.

6. is the difference between sloppy and precise. It can make the performace picture perfect.










Denny told the children when they were small and still tells them today, details determine destiny. The details of life are related to the technique. How you work on something till you get it! Indeed you can go through life in a sloppy manner and not have the life you dreamed or you can work on technique and consistency and have a successful life, but more than success, the ability to know inside that you worked really hard on the details, the technique and you can be proud!

Well just some lessons I learned at dance yesterday, now 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8... I better get going on my "stuff!" The "stuff" no one sees but literally pays off in the end!