Rachel Hoey

There seem to be two types of people I encounter when it comes to New Years resolutions. Those who love them (or at least love to make them), and those who think they’re a load of tosh. I fall into the former category. I love setting goals and I love asking others what their goals are. Sometimes I hear that there’s no point setting New Year's resolutions, as it’s just setting you up to fail. Everyone knows that no one follows through on them anyway.

But I disagree, I think that goals give you direction. Even if you only make it halfway to your goal, or only achieve half of the goals you set, that’s further than if you’d never tried at all. And to me that sounds like something worth celebrating.

So without further ado, may I present to you my dance goals for 2024. Please let me know your own goals, whatever they may be. And who knows, if we have any in common we might be able to share resources and inspiration, or simply check in and encourage each other!

My dance goals for 2024:

I recognise that as a dancer, I am an athlete and I will act accordingly.

I will stretch and warm up my body before class

I will keep active beyond dance

I will work on technical skills

I will attend dance classes of other styles to improve my skills, confidence, and understanding of dance technique
I will organise or participate in designated, focused practice sessions weekly and come prepared with my personal goals

I will actively work on building the type of community I want to be a part of

I will recognise and celebrate the successes of my peers
I will consciously organise opportunities to hang out and connect with my dance friends beyond dancing

I will not be afraid to be seen trying

I will film (and watch!) my dancing regularly
I will ask for feedback when needed, and implement that feedback at the first available opportunity

Now, I would just like the stress that these are my personal goals. I am by no means advocating that these are helpful or inspiring intentions for every dancer out there. After all, we all have our own motivations for why and how we dance. For you, dance may be a way to stay active physically, an opportunity to make new friends and see old ones, an artform or means of self expression, a way to build confidence, connect with music or something more!

This cat knows how to treat it’s body like an athlete.

I particularly enjoyed reading these 2015 resolutions from the fabulous Sharon Davis, and I hope that you might find them inspiring, or at least thought provoking. Some other goals you might consider include:

Attend a class every week
Attend an interstate event
Attend an international event
Compete in a local contest or one outside my scene
Dance with someone I don’t know at every social I attend
Share the joy and invite a new friend dancing each month
Practise at a designated time every day/week/fortnight/month
Attend/organise regular group practice sessions
Invite your dance friends to get together outside of dancing every week/fortnight/month
Watch more historic dance clips! You’ll find plenty of clips on YouTube and in playlists too - including this one, and this one!
Research more into the history of the dance. If you’re a reader, you may enjoy the below:
Swinging at The Savoy. The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer
Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance
Carry, and use, a dance notebook to keep track of your learning
Use your body within its limits, and rest appropriately

The sage advice, of “be firm about your goals but flexible about your methods”, often rings in my own ears. My goal isn’t really to practise each week, or to attend x number of events, my goal is to be a more expressive, authentic, kind, and skilled dancer. But these points are what I hope will help me become one.

Happy 2024!

I sent this piece to my good friend Vanessa Smallbon to hear her feedback. And she delivered! I liked her response so much, I’ve included it below for you to read.

How to set goals?

We’ve all heard the term SMART goals before. If you haven’t, it stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound - for example by June I want to be practising my footwork variations for 30min a day, 3 days a week. While this is a useful framework (and fantastic if it works for you!), it can sometimes set you up to fail as it becomes very easy (and I often fall victim to this) to become disheartened if you fall short of your goal. Human behaviour change towards the positive is tough!

For a gentler way it can be useful to set a general broad idea to work towards rather than a specific goal. When becoming the best dancer or person you want to be, the exact points don’t matter as long as the trend line is going in the right direction. There is no single path and it’s the trend of your decisions (mostly made of small choices) that will push you towards or further away from your goal. For example if your idea is to be more active outside of dance, when you’re brushing your teeth, you can make the choice of scrolling TikTok on your phone or practising your one legged balances. Will I walk or drive to the supermarket today?

Using this method can help you notice opportunities to be a little better in moments than you were before. Even just having a good idea to follow is beneficial because it’s almost impossible to fail - you will notice opportunities for betterment that you didn’t before!

Keeping the idea broad allows you the grace for the path of betterment to change as you do. As most people will have experienced, road blocks (injury, family crisis etc.) can hit out of nowhere and having a general idea allows you to stay on a positive path without the guilt of failing to achieve a specific goal set by a past version of yourself.

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