a secret book of dance teachers

"It's cold."
"Very cold and snowing."
"I'm tired."
"I'm very sleepy."
"I have work to do."
"I have a bit of a back pain."
Long pause.
"Are you saying we should stay home?"
"Are you saying we should skip a lesson?"
Another long pause.
"No. We should go."
"I know."
And we go.
Every Monday, no matter what the weather is like, or how tired we are, my husband and I go to dance (ballroom) lessons. For years now.

I am convinced that there is a secret book for dance teachers. Not the one with fancy pictures and perfect moves and vocabulary. There is another one, with little messages on how to manage adult learners. I have not seen the book, but in the many years I have been able to infer some secrets.

Some advice from there:
1. Start slow and make the learners believe that they can actually learn to dance. Only when you are completely sure that they won't quit, you can show how their moves look compared to the expected ones. (My husband and I realized rather quickly that we would never learn it the right way. We started at the same time as our daughter. It is a serious sport, and it takes several lessons a week to achieve quality. If you dance for years once a week, you will go beyond the basic and occasionally it may be possible to pretend to strangers that you know what you do. )
2. You should be aware that people over thirty five may not be able to memorize rhythm, posture, steps, hands, toes, knees, head and hips at the same time. Focus on few at the time. Keep coming back. Don't loose hope. (Top grades for this to our teacher. It is actually very cute when she, over and over again, teaches us some new moves, and then reminds us to also use the basic techniques we have practiced and practiced. Our head can take only so much. We absolutely forget about the knees and toes when we try to memorize the different figures.) 
3. You can try to teach middle aged Estonian men how to move their hips, but be ready to suppress your laughter when you see them trying to do it. (I have to say that our teacher has been very good with this. The women in the lesson - not so good. We chuckle.)
4. Make sure that in between the dances you give some background knowledge or theoretical tips, so the dancers can rest. (We had a substitute teacher one day, and he did not follow that rule. We were exhausted and ached all over later. Good exercise though.)
5. Use the right vocabulary but allow the dancers to make up their own. (May-be there are people who can memorize all the terms, or even better, they learn the steps and the man leads without words. We are different. We have our own cue words to use. Without them, I could easily do opposite to my husband's intentions. Sometimes, when he tries to push me in a certain direction, I simply push back. Agreeing on what we do next helps us to look like a couple, not individual performers who hold hands. Some words from our vocabulary: float, glide, pull the carpet, roll me, shake hands, limp, chick-pum-paa.)
5. If it seems that they start feeling too comfortable and content, teach them some new moves to confuse them. (I believe that this is the golden rule of the dance teachers. Whenever my husband and I feel that "Wow. We can dance!" the teacher teaches us something new and everything seems falls apart. No surprise that we keep going back to the lessons.)

I am sure that there are some other rules that I haven't figured out yet. I will continue dancing to find out more.



dance slice 2011
dance slice 2012