It is often a revelation to dance in a studio without mirrors. Some dancers may feel uncomfortable and uncertain at first not to have mirrors, as they are not to be able to see what they are doing and check they are performing the exercises correctly. Despite this many would argue that the movement will feel right for the body, and mirrors are not required to feel this as they encourage dancers to ‘make shapes’ rather than initiate the movement from an internal source.
Dancers often find that dancing in a room with no mirrors frees up their dancing, with no judgements about themselves and liberating the movement, feeling it rather than observing it. It is important to dance with the whole body, increasing confidence and changing the way dancers experience dance and their own movement.
It’s not to say that mirrors are not a useful tool as an addition to the dance studio to help correct placement and alignment, however when dancers are constantly in front of a mirror it is easy to judge yourself harshly and compare yourself to others in the class. The reflection becomes the most important part of the dance and what dancers think they should be seeing, rather than working to improve the physical body that is there in the studio. Some dancers can even become obsessed with their reflection, spending more time looking at it than listening to the teacher.
As you progress and develop as a dancer it becomes easier to recognise the feelings of movements and technique when they are ‘correct’, gleaning the best results when you’re not caught up in your own image or perception of what you see in the mirror. Essentially your teacher is your mirror, providing feedback needed to move more efficiently without the effects of reflective self-criticism. Once you feel the movement and understand how to move her boys when you feel it, your brain can start to reproduce it over and over again and you need never see it.