Dance Instructor Diaries

[Spiritual Warrior]

Hi, I am a dance instructor. I will be journaling about insights that I have gotten in my dance instructor journey. My goal in life is to master the dynamic between the masculine and the feminine, I just so happen to dance. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

2.27.24

I Had three lessons yesterday, and the bulk of my insights came from a young couple that I taught at the end of my day. 

A young couple came in at 7:45 last night. We started off with the waltz, but they were struggling with the footwork in the underarm turn. We then moved onto their favorite dance, the swing; we hammer home two new moves in about 30 minutes and they are able to dance around to some music. Here are my insights:

Insight #1: Let the man cook! 

The man in the couple is a young guy, 18 years old, very energetic, confident, ambitious, wants to learn, wants to lead. At times as their instructor, I would stop their dance because the footwork was off, what I could have done more of is allow this guy to lead his lady out of the footwork mishaps. It's not always going to be pretty, but it is the mans role at times to brutely lead the two of us out of a pickle. Let the man cook! Give him the reins to figure it out for himself! Trust that he can do it.

Insight #2: Fight for their progress!

At the end of the lesson, I didn't push for them to come in the following week. I said that they can come in whenever they want. I am not being a good instructor here because I am not fighting for their dance progress. If I were fighting for their dance progress, then I would have tried to get them in as quickly as possible... Because the longer you wait to come back in, the more momentum that you lose as a dancer. 

Insight #3:  Get out of your head! 

One more, I had a 19 year old girl early on, and I feel like I was again correcting her too much. I want to help get her out of her head, she is thinking too much about the steps. I can do this by talking to her while we're dancing or making her close her eyes. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

What am I going to focus on with each couple that I am teaching tomorrow?

Couple #1 (Guy from New York) lesson #3

They asked me last time if they could focus on just Foxtrot and Waltz. As their instructor, I knew that this is not a good idea but I allowed them to dictate what we did for the lesson. Tonight, I would like to share with them that I feel like we should do more dances in a single lesson. "I want you to learn the hussle and the bachata today because I can tell by your personalities that you'll enjoy it. I think it will make our lessons flow a little cohesively because I want this to be fun for you guys."

 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Couple #2 (Tall Canadian) Lesson #3

They are actually pretty good and can move around the dance floor. Here is my lesson plan: 

Merengue - play music, get them moving (Danza Kaduro) 

Hustle - Teach them the hustle and then rotate it, play music (Girls just want to have fun)

Waltz - Review Waltz, then do underarm turn, play music (American Waltz mix on Youtube)

Rumba - Teach them all of the crossover variations - Crossover, Continuous Crossovers , have them dance, play Ring My Bells

Edited February 29 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

One of the couples from last week didn't show up to their lesson. During the previous lesson, we struggled to make much progress on any of the moves I was trying to teach them. I fear that because of how poorly the last lesson went, they felt like they are incapable of learning to dance. This is a dance instructors worst nightmare. I strongly believe that ANYONE can learn how to dance. If they don't think that they can dance, then it is MY FAULT.

Whether they believe in themselves or not falls on my shoulders. I have to get them to feel like they can do it. That is the most important thing early on in their dance journey, just get them to believe in themselves. 

Edited March 6 by Spiritual Warrior