Why do private lessons ?

By Erik & Consuelo

Classes are fun, inspiring, and you meet people. However, people taking private lessons become clever and independent with dancing MUCH faster than those who only take group classes. There are many reasons to why people who spend the same money on private lessons learn how to dance in weeks instead of years:

*Many people taking dance classes don't care about learning how to dance.
Many people don't care much if they learn to dance or not, they just want to get the exercise. They are not interested in being able to use what they learn any where else. They are happy to be able to "fake how to dance" with their fellow participants in a class. This is not very motivating for the serious students, and it is not motivating for the instructor either. As a result - it almost become impossible to learn how to dance for real. One of the biggest problems with a class is that people may FEEL that they can dance as long as they are in class. However when they try to dance on their own nothing works (and instead of thinking that there is something wrong with the way they learn - they think it is something wrong with them and they give up and quit or they go back to class again!).

*You can not ask questions in class.
When learning to dance, you must not only train your body by repeating some moves. The most important is that you understand HOW and WHY about each element! The learning process involves practicing and understanding. Since a group class is not only for you, you can not get all the answers you need. Many people waste a lot of time repeating dance steps and figures but don't know how to dance because they did not learn how and why. They just repeat and hope to do the right thing. They don't know if what they do is right or wrong. Besides, it may be irritating for the instructor or other students if one student ask too many questions! Because they work so hard on repeating things they THINK that they are learning, but they are not.

*Group classes spend more time on teaching - the focus in privates is on the learning!
People in a group tend to understand one and the same thing in different ways, and in different tempo. A big part of teaching dance is about Observing the one who is learning. Because a lot of time must be spent on teaching/demonstarting, and because of many students, the instructor can not really observe you.
-OBSERVING: What does the student do well, what would make the student grow faster? what is holding the student back? What is the strength of the student? what is it that the student does not seem to understand? This is essential information for the one who is learning.

*Partner Technique:
People waste too much time trying to learn partner technique in a group class (and fail). In partner dancing the most important aspect is connecting and communicating with your partner. If you are in a group class and try to learn this together with a partner who is also trying to learn it... how will you learn how you are supposed to feel, how will you learn if you do a mistake or the one you are dancing with? Do you feel too stiff, too relaxed? A trained dancer will easily be able to tell you this, but it is hard to get this information in a group class. Learning partner technique is not as easy as observing and copying some dance steps.

*Classes are often not progressive (meaning that the next class continues to teach what you learned in the previous class), so there is not much of a system in what is being taught. If you learn something you don't know how to use it with other elements.

*Classes are often open (meaning that students come in and out of class any time), so a complete beginner may come in any time so everybody must start from beginning).Because many members of a dance studio just show up now and then, the instructor can not teach the logically progressive class that would be best for you.

*Practice makes permanent:
It is easy to develop bad habbits in a group class because the teacher does not have time to study all students in detail. In a private lesson your coach will make sure that you only practice what is correct.

*Classes are often designed to make you stay:
- while privates are designed to make you become independent of the instrucor. People stay a long time in class thinking that they learn how to dance, while they are really only able to dance when the instructor tells them what to do.

*A private coach will make sure you look good when you dance. The instructor in a class is just happy that you stay for a long time and pay the money. As private instructors we are proud of our students. We will make sure you dance with elegance and style because people will ask you where you learned how to dance. Maybe you are here because some of our students recomended you to check us out?

*Role of dancers:
As a man you don't want to appear or look like the lady you are dancing with. Your role is the masculine protector that lead the lady to dance. As a lady you do not want to appear masculine. The role of the lady is to enjoy and express what the man is leading her to do in an exciting/feminine way. In a group class the time is limited and individuals are very different so it may be difficult to separate these two roles and teach them properly.

_________________

If you find a class where you can only start at a certain date (and not later), and that last for a certain time such as such as 8 or 12 weeks, and the class has a good program based on a logic system, then this is probably a good class
__________________

If you want to learn it well and want to learn it fast you came to the right place. Many places offer to teach dance for those who have never danced before. We make sure that our students LEARN how to dance. Click here to sign up for private dance lessons