dance
Performance Anxiety
If every time before going on stage you feel nervous, have performance anxiety, or are even ready to call the whole thing off, and you want to conquer this feeling, here are my thoughts. The 3 basics I have been performing on stage since the age of 6. Many people around me, my students, colleagues and audience think at this point of my life as an…
On Choreographing
"The Art of Starting or The Magic of Inspiration When we talk about creating anything, or choreographing, there is always a presence of the Mysterious and Charming Angel of Inspiration. I think nowadays there is quite a sober attitude to the magic of inspiration as the main source of any creation. I really like the quote from composer John…
Practice Time 2: How to practice improvisation?
Everything we do in swing and social dances unless it’s a performance or choreography, is an improvisation. We are going to look closer now on how to actually practice it. There is an ocean of things to practice. Again, limit yourself. Don’t practice everything. Everything means you won't really improve significantly in any element of your…
Practice Time 1: General tips
My students very often are interested if I practice by myself: what, how and how often. I am a solo dancer, that’s my life, love and profession. Oh yes, I practice. It’s the best way to discover things and improve. I practice physically and mentally. As often as I can. Normally I work on the weekends: jazz festivals, swing dance festivals, dance…
Ksenia's Secrets of the Charleston 20s
Are you ready to push your Charleston dance to the next level? In this extensive videos series I will be breaking down techniques and steps from the legendary Charleston dance of the 1920’s. Each chapter tackles one Charleston topic, and will be showing different patterns, variations and styling within that topic. Here’s an example…