What Class Builds. What Performance Reveals.

Last night, I was at a performance recital.

Two dancers stood out to me.

Both seasoned.

Their technique was clean.

It was clear they both had musicality.

Both dancing to classical Egyptian cabaret music.

But the experience of watching them was completely different...

One dancer - let’s call her Rita - felt refined.

She was relaxed.

There was space in her dancing.

She chose what accents to take and what to leave alone.

She wasn’t trying to show everything she could do.

She was dancing with the music.

And it made me feel at ease watching her. I was breathing with her.

The other dancer - let’s call her Sally - felt very different.

She was strong.

Capable.

Enduring.

But it felt like: pow, pow, pow, bam, pow, bam

Accent after accent.

Big, pronounced, constant.

After a while, I found myself thinking:

breathe…

pause…

you don’t have to hit everything.

There was very little expansion.

It was all compression.

And this morning, I got thinking about why that felt so different.

(because that's what my brain does, especially the day after a performance event)

In class, we build capacity.

We drill.

We repeat (and repeat and repeat)

We build endurance so the movement is there when we need it.

That’s where you learn how to hit the accents.

How to layer.

How to keep going.

And that absolutely matters.

But performance is different, whether in writing choreography or in improv.

Performance isn’t about showing everything you can do.

It’s about choosing.

Choosing when to move.

Choosing when to pause.

Choosing what matters… and what doesn’t.

Class builds capacity. Performance reveals taste.

Rita has endurance.

You could feel it.

She just didn’t need to prove it.

She let the music breathe.

And because of that… we could breathe with her, take in her artistry, the beauty of the dance and the music.

Try This Back in the Studio

In class, do the work.

Build the strength.

Hit the accents.

Push your endurance.

But in the choreography and on stage…

you don’t have to show it all.

Sometimes the most powerful moment

isn’t in doing more -

it’s in choosing less,

and letting it land.