Not dancing your best on stage? Is your warm up to blame?

Picture this…

You arrive at a big feis that you have spent weeks and months preparing for. You’ve prepared really well at class and during your time at home and you feel ready to hit the big stage and enjoy every moment of it. 

But you get on stage and your legs feel lethargic, sleepy and heavy!! Your heavy round is nowhere near like you know you can dance it and you can’t figure out why!

Does this sound familiar??

So many dancers come to us with this issue and there is a range of reasons why this could be, but one of the biggest reasons why this happens is down to one very important thing.

Your warm up could be to blame! 

Warming up at feises is something that dancers either often forget about or don’t do to their best ability because they are intimidated by the other dancers around or they don’t want to make themselves “too tired” before they dance on stage. But by not doing enough warm up, you’re sabotaging how well you will dance on stage. 

In our MWM Gold Club we have a Feis Day Warm Up that so many dancers use for every single feis! We have so much positive feedback about it and dancers find they perform better on stage when they warm up properly. 

To create a warm up for yourself, then you need to think about these things…

Start by getting your heart pumping! 

This could be via jumping jacks, jogging on the spot or butt kicks. Get some upbeat music playing in those earphones to inspire you to get up and moving.

Mobilise and Stretch! 

Do some mobility work which focus on your hips, back in particular before moving on to stretching your hamstrings, sides of your upper body, posterior chain, chest, shoulders and back. 

Dance!

Now put on your shoes and dance your steps through multiple times and definitely make sure you do a full dance…trust us on this one! We need to tell the muscles that we are switching them all on. 

Warm up your mind!

Your physical warm up is also a great time to warm up your mind and mentally prepare for the feis ahead. Think about how you want to dance on stage and what you can do between now and stepping on stage to make that happen. Check in with yourself and honestly ask yourself how you feel - being nervous is okay and pushing down or denying our feelings doesn’t make them go away! 

Remember you never dance your best full dance at dance class at the start of the night - it is normally in the middle or end of the class when we are super warm! Feis days are no different. By ensuring you have the perfect warm up, you can give yourself the best chance of dancing your best on stage. 

If you are looking for the perfect way to warm up (and they stay warmed up until you stay on stage) then our MWM Gold Club feis warm up video is for you. You can find it under the Feis Preparation section in our Gold Club. It is only £35 per month and there’s no contract or cancellation fee. What are you waiting for?? Don’t let 2024 be the year your warm up stands in your way!