Dance Tips for Partner Dancing
Never compare yourself to others - everyone learns at a different pace, and somepeople have danced before. Everyone can learn how to dance, give yourself time and patience and lots of self praise.
Never berate or tell yourself or your partner off - this puts pressure on and creates self doubt and insecurity
Followers should never tell the Leaders in dancing what to do unless they are the teacher as men have alot to do, they have to do 5 things at once: keep the beat, plan ahead, know how to do the moves, be aware of the womens body movements, know which step she is on and be aware of the environment aswell as master the step. So we never tell the men what to do, we let them figure it out for themselves as this teaches them how to lead faster and allows them to learn from their mistakes.
Some men will ask the women what to do, and if the women tells them then the guy is not learning for themselves they rely on the women to be their memory for them. This is not leading for the men and it can be quite frustrating for both. The guys will remember once they have done the moves for themselves many times - this is all they need to do, but if they ask it's best to tell them to ask the teacher. This way the guy will try harder to remember for themselves and stop relying on women to lead them. They all get it sooner or later. Have faith
Also, most people who tell the leader what to do usually get it wrong, as following is very different to leading. Let the teacher do the teaching and just relax, and enjoy following the guys leads regardless of what they are doing.
Good followers, don't say anything to the Leaders, they keep step with the man and turn anyway he wants her to go, even if it's not what the teacher is teaching. She generally looks up and to the side, and is aware of what the guys are doing with their hands. Focusing on what the guys are not doing will make dancing unpleasant for both of you. Just follow if your a lady, let the guys lead you and enjoy the dance and movement.
Change Partners Regularly:
- As it teaches men to Lead and women to follow - the basic essential for partner dancing
- It can be scarey at first dancing with complete strangers, but after the first couple of weeks you get use to everyone and it becomes a very sociable enjoyable session for all
- Changing partners gives you a chance to dance with very good leaders and followers and dancing with good dancers increases your skills 10 fold
- People who don't change partners tend to get left behind
- Followers are less likely to tell a stranger what to do
- Leaders generally dance better with strangers then their partner as their partner has expectations which can sometimes make the guy nervous
- Everyone is different to dance with, so when you change partners you learn to lead faster and women learn to follow faster.
- Staying with the same partner, can create bad habits, and men start developing routines which ladies lead themselves into - the leading and following stops very quickly and sometimes never happens - as all you are doing are practicing routines the guy becomes reliant on the girls moves - but if you put these people with the best dancers they usually can't follow and the guys can't lead.
-It also makes learning to dance boring - as you are stuck with the same person for the whole hour and the guys need to practice the same move over and over again until it gets in procedural memory - hence it can be boring for both, and if the lady doesn't like following then the guy can't learn anything. Changing partners allows both people to practice the moves over and over again, but keeps it interesting as you are doing the same move with a different partner, and this keeps everyone entertained. It also allows you to dance with better dancers and the guys usually fine they can dance better with a good follower and the women like the variety and different moves a good leader will give them when changing partners
It is easier to master the salsa step without the partner - so some men will take the Salsafitness class where they learn Salsa and Cha to a very capable degree, and then they do the beginners partner dance course and they find this much easier and more enjoyable as less pressure.
Have faith and trust in your partner - they all get it eventually - lots of encouragement and lots of allowing each other to learn at their own pace
