Have Patience, Grasshopper.

I see so many students become frustrated with themselves (or with their partners) when learning new things - whether that be a new step or a new dance. In talking with other teachers (school teachers and college teachers, mostly), I've discovered that most teachers feel that adults make the lousiest learners. Why? We are impatient. We are accustomed to knowing things, and not accustomed to having to learn things. Children and teenagers, on the other hand, face the task of having to acquire new skills on a nearly daily basis. (I'm pretty sure there's a biological, neuroscience reason behind this, too, but I'm hardly an expert on neuroscience.)

I watch Wally learn new things all the time. He has recently mastered the art of putting on his own pants, but it wasn't an easy task at first. He had to sit and think about which way to put the pants, how to get one leg in each pants leg. He had to remember to pull the pant legs up until he could see his feet before standing up to pull them up the rest of the way. He still sometimes tries to pull them up with both hands tugging on the front waistband, then he stops when he realizes that it's not working right, to try to figure out what went wrong. Eventually, getting dressed will be a mindless task for him, one that doesn't require much conscious thought. But for now, when it's still new to him, he's slow and he has to think it through.

Another example is to think back to when you learned to drive. How much you had to concentrate on the smallest things. I remember having to watch the median line to make sure I stayed on my half of the road, and paying so much attention to achieving a smooth transition from gas to brake and back to gas. And braking without jerking the car! It was so much work, it took so much mental energy. And now I hardly have to think about driving, it's so automatic.

The same is true of people learning to dance. Before you have developed sufficient muscle memory, doing the steps correctly takes a lot of conscious thought. You have to remember to pick up your feet and move them around, and you have to remember to move your arms and your body at the same time. Not only that, but you have to figure out the right way to move your arms, legs, and body. You have to do it with the right timing. You have to also keep with the music. It's a lot to think about! And it's not easy, particularly not at first.

But us adults, accustomed to having things be relatively easy, and not accustomed to acquiring new skills, expect to be able to pick up dancing instantaneously. And we get frustrated when that doesn't happen.

The solution? Just have patience, and be kind to yourself. Remember the last time you learned an entirely new skill, like driving, or even think back to the last time you changed jobs. It just takes a while for anybody - particularly adults - to develop new skills.

But eventually, through sheer repetition, the movements of dancing become engrained in your muscles. Your body goes on autopilot. At that point, you won't have to think about the steps as much, it'll just be automatic - as automatic as driving a car or putting on pants.

Practice Makes...

Practice makes what? If you answered "perfect," well, I disagree. In reality, practice makes permanent.

Practice is the process of developing muscle memory - training your muscles to peform a task without conscious thought. It is only through practice that we eventually reach the point where we can dance without thinking "step step triple step," or we can lead our partners without thinking "pull her in, bring her through."

But if your practice time involves repeating the same step over and over incorrectly, you're going to make a bad habit, bad form, or just wrong movement, permanent. Because this is what you've trained your muscles to do.

What does this mean in practical terms?

1) Check with someone else (like your teacher) if you're unsure whether you're practicing something correctly.

2) Don't do your learning from video tapes. Video tapes have their place, that's for sure, but one of their main drawbacks is that they provide no feedback. If you're not doing something right, the video is not going to clue you in.

3) Focus on executing your steps with precision when you practice. When I was taking piano lessons, I was told to slow down when working on a piece. Slow down to a tempo I could play without missed notes, then practice at that tempo for a while before trying to speed up again. Now, sometimes dancing slowly can be a challenge, but it's a good challenge - one that forces you to get it exactly right, and gives you the time to do so. (watch for a future article on slooooowing down.)


Beyond merely rote repetition and muscle training, practice is also a process of analysis and problem solving. If you continually stumble, jump, run, or take "catch up" steps during a particular move, you must stop and figure out where the trouble is. If your partner consistently doesn't catch your lead, you must stop and analyze the difficulty. Oftentimes, this leads us back to the idea of slowing down to determine exactly where the trouble lies. Once you've found the trouble spot, you can devise a solution.

This is actually one of the best reasons to practice between classes, rather than saving all of your practice for once a class series is over. If you've had a chance to practice and discover what's giving you trouble, you can return to class and ask your instructor for help in solving the problem. Good dance teachers should be able to pinpoint the issue and offer a solution.


Now, what are you waiting for? Go practice!


some ideas from this article were inspired by an article in Mothering magazine called "Go Practice the Piano" from the winter 1997 issue. I happened across the article while writing this post and the author so eloquently captured my jumbled thoughts.

How to Learn Dancing

I've been thinking about this lately as we watch a new class slowly learn to dance. Some of the students will excel, coming back each week having mastered the material from the previous week and ready to learn more. Some of the students will founder, wanting more and more review as the weeks go on, never quite able to remember the steps from one week to the next. They will finish the class being able to competently peform the basics, but they won't remember much more than that.

The same thing happens to more advanced learners, as well. I can remember very distinctly learning a complex (or at least it seemed at the time) jazz dance routine from Frankie Manning's at-that-time teaching partner Debbie something. It took all day. It was fun. It was exhausting. I don't remember any of it.

So what's the secret? What's the difference between those who grow and excel at their dancing and those who founder and ultimately fall short of their hopes to become comfortable and confident dancers?

After teaching people to dance for nearly 10 years now, I've had plenty of opportunity to observe, and here are my thoughts.

1) Taking notes. Not mental notes. Physical ones. The students who do well generally write little notes to themselves to help them remember what they learned. Many of our students have requested that we provide them with notes, but I have decided that this is not in their best interest. The best notes, that will be the most meaningful to you, are ones you take yourself. You can write down the things you need to remember in a way that makes sense to you.

Sometimes, my notes have consisted of little stick-figure drawings combined with arrows and notes. Sometimes, just count-by-count descriptions of what happens during a particular step. Sometimes I like to make comparisons. "Just like jump charleston except..." or "Starts like The Dream, but then..." What makes sense to me will not always make sense to you.

2) Practice. Of course the best notes in the world won't do you any good without practice. I do still have my notes from the abovementioned jazz routine class. They make a little sense, but not enough sense to enable me to complete the routine. Practice helps develop muscle memory, which means that your muscles can do the step without you really having to consciously move your arms and legs to the right places.

Muscle memory is what enables me to sit down and play Fur Elise at the piano even today, though I haven't seen the music for a good 12 or 13 years and I learned it when I was in junior high (in the 80s!!). I practiced the song to death, but my muscles still remember how it goes.

Practice can be as simple as walking through the steps you have learned a few times during the week between classes. Or you can set aside a few minutes each day to dance with a partner. Of course, our monthly dance Jive Junction provides a perfect practice opportunity. I'll have more on practice next week!

3) Attitude. Don't underestimate the power of attitude. Time and again, I have seen students with absolultely no sense of rhythm or coordination, but who come in thinking "this is going to be fun and it might be challenging, but I can do it!" generally leave class able to dance fairly well. They are not only determined to learn, but they have also determined that they CAN learn it.

I have also watched students with excellent rhythm and coordination come into a class thinking "this is stupid and I can't do it." They are the ones who, when we are demonstrating a move, say "oh, man, that's HARD!" No matter what we say, their answer is "I can't do this." That attitude quickly become self-fulfilling. They have decided in advance that it is too hard, and so it is too hard. This is unfortunate, but there's little I can do as a teacher to change the attitude of a student in four short weeks! I can do my best to help them see the fun in dancing, to make them laugh, to lighten their mood, and to encourage their learning process, but I cannot fundamentally change someone's attitude - that's up to them!

4) Dancing socially. Those students who dance socially - that is, with more than one partner - tend to learn faster and learn "better" than those who do not. Even if it is awkward at first to dance with strangers, it is ultimately much better for your dancing. Dancing with different partners really helps you to become a stronger leader or a better follower, not to mention affording you the opportunity to learn from those who are more experienced dancers.

And there you have it - the secrets to learning social dancing. Take notes, practice, have a good attitude, and dance socially. Of course, it helps to seek out instructors who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and to take classes that are appropriate for your level and goals, as well!

See you on the dance floor! (or in class?)