One more time...One more time...

One more time… Again… almost there, three phrases a dancer hears every class. One more time is how a dancer knows that they are going to have to repeat the combo or phrase more than just once. It’s the repetition, going over and over a piece so many times until it is second nature. If you’ve ever heard a dance say “Oh I did a combination to this song” then know that they spent at least an hour going over it so they want to show off what they learned.

Repetition creates muscle memory, muscle memory is one of the most important things about dance. You are creating that pattern in your body to understand the motion that you have to complete. When you are learning a new dance piece you have to do the same step over and over to make sure that you understand the pattern.

One more time… one more time… the words that a dancer thinks when the music turns on, the thought that a dancer has when they are backstage getting ready to perform, and the last thought a ballerina has when she or he gets ready to retire. One more time, the phrase that never leaves a dancer.

It is hard to see how this phrase can have a good meaning in dance when most dancers hear it they get overwhelmed with the feeling of doing it again, but the satisfaction of getting the combination right is where the joy in this phrase is found.

But it is never as simple as one more time, because outside of class you will think about the combination, and you will run it 20 times either through your head visualizing or physically when you have enough space, you become consumed with making sure it is perfect. The phrase one more time is what makes a dancer a perfectionist. They also shoot to try again because they know they can do it better, that they can make it perfect… but perfection is unachievable.

One more time… one more time until it is perfect and until you are the best, this is where that desire to be the best comes from. Each dancer has a time in their career when they realize they have to be perfect, and it puts pressure on them not just in dance but in every area of life. Dancers know that perfection isn’t something they can get but they try anyway.

One more time… one more time… one more time… there is only so much a dancer can do there's only so many times a dancer can do a move, one more time means do it until you have it. Never underestimate the determination of a dancer and the power of the phrase one more time. While a dancer knows their own limit they will still push themselves past their limits and try it all again just one more time.