As adults we can be put off by the thought of learning a new physical skill such as learning to dance. Walking through the doors or even booking into your first class can be daunting. You don’t know what to expect and you certainly don’t want to look uncoordinated and feel like everyone is watching you. The truth is, everyone who learns to dance has experienced these thoughts and fears.
We as teachers understand because we were once at the beginning stages too! We want you to know what to expect and know that all the stages of learning to dance are completely normal and we must experience them if aiming to master a new skill.
Stage 1. Booking into your first class and overcoming the “fear.”
As we said before, the hardest part is walking through the doors. None of us want to put ourselves in a situation where we feel insecure about not being good at something, the likely hood is when you join your first dance class, everyone in the class will be new to dancing too and feeling exactly the same way.
Learning a new physical skill pushes the barriers of our comfort zones, but to master a new skill we must first begin.
Stage 2. Learning the steps
The first and most simple way of learning your very first dance steps is copying the movements of your teacher. You will continue to copy and repeat what your teacher does until you feel you have the step pattern on your own. This can feel very different when you are practicing the steps with your dance partner as you will both be learning to balance in different ways, not everyone picks up the steps at the same pace so you have to have patience with each other and yourself. As we often hear ” i can do it on my own.” This is the beauty of learning Ballroom and Latin dancing, you are working with a partner.
After about 4 – 5 weeks of learning to dance. You will be at the stage where you may not remember the step patterns of each dance, they all seem jumbled up and everything keeps going wrong. Unfortunately this is the stage where many people quit as by this point you will be thinking surely I should have mastered it by now? Nope, wrong! Learning to dance like you see on the TV is not as easy as it seems. Perfecting a skill to make it look effortless takes a very long time, and we can confirm learning to dance is definitely not easy, but the journey is so worth it.
Stage 3. Trusting your dance partner
After a 3-6 months (depending on how much you practice) you and your partner will both start to feel confident with your new step patterns that you have learnt. You will start know which step pattern fits with which Ballroom or Latin dance and you will both start to believe in yourselves. This is where trust comes in, as your start to practice your dancing socially you’ll start to recognise that not everyone does the same step patterns and therefore sometimes you will have to dance around other couples on the dance floor, this is where lead and follow come into play.
The leader navigates the step patterns around the floor and the follower follows the signals and you move in perfect harmony, well that’s the idea anyway. However you both have to trust each other, and this takes time to build. You may try to lead/follow but find yourself looking at the floor, looking at your feet or maybe gripping each other a little too hard, this is perfectly normal. Once you are confident with the steps you have been learning, practicing leading/following and really learning to trust your dance partner will help you gel together before advancing onto anymore new steps. You could learn 1000s of steps, but Ballroom and Latin dancing is about you and your partner connecting, being in sync and moving to the music together as one.
Stage 4. Feeling awkward (learning the techniques and styling of the dances)
As you progress you will want to learn the techniques of the dance, the basic fundamentals that give each dance its character or aesthetic. This is our favourite part as instructors as this is where you really start to “feel the dance.”
This stage can feel awkward as you will be moving your body in different ways, using your feet and arms in a way you are not used to, plus using muscles “you didn’t know you had!” we’ve heard that many times. You will feel like a baby learning to walk, and your arms and feet will be doing something way out of your comfort zone. Yes it will feel awkward, simply because it’s a new movement for your body. At this stage you will look much better than you feel, remember it will feel strange because it’s new. Feeling awkward at this point is because you have learnt the techniques theoretically or mentally, but it has not become habit for you body or muscles yet, this is where practice and the constant application of the techniques and principles come into play to progress you to the next stage.
How long this stage takes can vary depending on the couple and how much you practice. However your teacher will always continue to remind you of the basic fundamentals.
Stage 5. Will I ever get it? (learning the in depth techniques and stylings of each dance)
Once you’ve had a taste of the basic fundamentals of each dance you can start to feel what dancing really is all about. Warning, you’ll become addicted. You’ll want to learn more, get better and really advance your dancing. This is the stage where we as teachers can coach you with so much information that at times your brain will feel like a jumbled filing cabinet. You’ll know what we are trying to get you to do, its just finding it in the cabinet! One day you’ll feel like your advancing and then the next day you may feel like you really just don’t get it. This can be very frustrating but we will help guide you through it with coaching, repetition and of course again… practice.
Something will only become a subconscious habit if you repeat, repeat, repeat! This stage can feel like the long haul, keep going!
Stage 6. OK, I get it now!
This is the stage where you understand dancing mentally and physically. You also know what it is that you need to do. You now trust the process and understand there is no “fast track.” You are feeling each dance, dancing feels fluid, less effort and you are enjoying yourself whilst dancing to the music. You have stopped thinking about the steps and are concentrating on the actual dance its self and the characteristics of each dance. The step patterns become irrelevant as long as you are applying the technique and styling, following and leading and you will feel like you truly understand the process. Be aware this stage will be forever ongoing, there is always ways to progress and improve. Even we as teachers still learn something new everyday and will continue to do so always.
” When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way. “
Wayne Dyer