Some ideas to encourage the "Dance like no one is watching" attitude:
- How dances are invented
There are many established types of dances. Many of which can be found here: Everybody Dance Now, but to me, the important thing is how they were invented and what the inventor went through to establish its reputation. Think of what people thought of the inventor when they first started dancing to their newly invented style. Did they care? Probably cared more about having fun than propagating their mad stylez throughout the masses.
- Having fun
Dancing is about having fun, it's about interpreting music with the use of your body, it's about expressing emotions by moving your body. If you believe that dancing is about showing off to others, or a way to measure one's skill to connect to music, then that's your first problem. As with all things, practice makes perfect. If you keep discouraging yourself, then of course you'll feel paranoid and self-conscious. Wouldn't anybody? Your goal is not to break the barrier of self-consciousness, but to weaken it with practice, positive attitude and plain fun. Is fun really that hard to have?
- Moving your body
Dancing is about enjoying all the possible ways you can move your body. It's about combining your love for music with some body movin'. Limit yourself to what others can do, and you limit your potential. Let me reiterate: "There is no *right* way of dancing!" All dances were not invented by copying other dances. They were invented to have fun.
N.B.: In no ways was this writeup meant to encourage the use of drugs, alcohol or anything else that would make you feel more at ease to dance (in terms of consumption). In fact, I strongly discourage it, because if that's the way you start to dance, then that will be the way you will always dance.