Free Dance Routines Online

Looking up free dance routines online is a great way to come up with inspiration for choreography. Thanks to the digital media revolution it has become very easy for other dancers to share their creative ideas and methods with each other and draw from an ever-expanding pool of knowledge, pictures, and video.

Because there is so much information available online, it is a good idea to know what you're looking for before you actually start surfing the web. What kind of dance routine are you looking for? While it might seem that you would have to look for routines within the genre of dance you're performing, you can learn a lot by looking for inspiration in other movement forms. A hip hop dancer might look for some belly dance moves to add an international flavor to the dance, or a line dancer might want to throw a few ballroom dance steps into his routine.

There are also instructional free dance routines on some sites, especially those that are marketing some kind of dance instruction DVD. Usually these will have short excerpts of video, and may not be enough to build an actual dance routine from. However, they serve very well as a launching pad to take your movement in new and unexpected directions.

What is a dancer if not an exhibitionist? YouTube and other video sites are full of free dance routines online and ready to view, ranging from rehearsal sessions to full performances. Even better are the dance competitions. Many different styles can be showcased right next to each other, and you can also see which were more pleasing to both the competition judges and the audience.

Most video sites allow you to flag certain videos as "favorites," and by taking advantage of this you can create a video scrapbook containing the dance routines online. At that point they become resources to use at rehearsals or when rehearsal is not available – a way to show other dancers your ideas, based on the video choreography.

Of course, it would be unethical to copy exactly any dance routine unless given explicit permission by the dancer themselves. The videos and the choreography itself is copyrighted and the property of the choreographer, the dancer, and sometimes also the videographer. In fact, it is considered polite to send an email or letter to the choreographer even if you are simply using their moves for inspiration. Aside from the benefit of hearing that their work is appreciated, it is possible that they will give feedback that can lead to a deeper understanding of the movements. The fact is that everyone takes inspiration from somewhere, and "original" work only comes from the authenticity of the self that a dancer brings to the work.

Once your dance routine is complete, your work isn't done, however. Aside from the performance itself, there is the potential to gain an audience of thousands or millions by putting your own work online. While this used to be rather complex, with the advent of digital media and easy-to-use software, such as Windows Movie Maker or Apple's iMovie, recording the routine and putting it online has become a very easy process. There are even sites such as Tube Mogul that will allow you to upload your video once and have it show up on multiple video sites.

Once the video is out there, social networking tools will let other dancers comment on your work, which can be daunting. Not everyone is as polite as they should be, and as a performer you have to have a thick skin and be secure in your own abilities to take some of the critique at face value. However, the critique is valuable, as much for what people notice as what they don't, and all of it can be used to make your next dance routine that much better.

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