Well, the steps are:
1)find some beginner classes in your area. You can't learn from a tape or a book
2)Be prepared to work hard.
3)Find a suitable partner (this is the hardest of all)
4)start saving!!
5)Stay tuned to this excellent site

dance sucks ass

As a lady, your footwork is important but also very important is the ability to follow. It is not your job to know where you are supposed to put your feet, unless you are doing some choreographed moves that are unleadable (if that's a word. lol). So learn your technique and find yourself an instructor that understands the importance of teaching you how to follow and not someone who is interested in just pushing you around. Dancing is about inviting and accepting not forcing the steps. But, if you can find this - you will love it! It's great way to excercise and it can so easily turn into a lifelong passion.

Good luck!

"As a lady, your footwork is important but also very important is the ability to follow. It is not your job to know where you are supposed to put your feet, unless you are doing some choreographed moves that are unleadable (if that's a word. lol). So learn your technique and find yourself an instructor that understands the importance of teaching you how to follow and not someone who is interested in just pushing you around. Dancing is about inviting and accepting not forcing the steps. But, if you can find this - you will love it! It's great way to excercise and it can so easily turn into a lifelong passion."

Very well said. The lady needs to practice her technique and drill her footwork so that her body can reliably dance all of the characeristic sorts of actions.

But which one she will find herslef doing, and how big it should be, and how it should be inflected and timed cannot be known in advance. She will literally find herself doing something with it already half done.

Where should her feet go? Where her body needs them to be in order to support it. And of course he body is matching the movement of his. And his feet are going where his feet need them to be. Thus the partners feet match, becuase and only becuase their bodies match.

Hi.
Take it from me.. I was a teacher for many years. Do not worry about all of the details at first. You simply will not be able to do it.
Learn how to hold your frame first, then learn your patterns and following the man's lead. Once you are comfortable with your patterns, then you can focus on foot work, head positioning ect.

Have fun!!!

I agree with you for the most part, except on the patterns. I am an instructor,though not for many years, still decent I would say. And for my couples, I will never teach the lady her pattern unless it's absolutely necessary. I don't think that learning footwork is essential RIGHT away, and you are absolutely correct that frame is definitely a first on the list. That has everything to do with leading and following. Teaching and learning is really a tricky thing because you don't want your students to develop bad habits that you have to break later. That is the fine line. Most of my students, when they first come in, do heel leads on the their forward steps in a waltz box step without even realizing it. I won't explain it to them because it's too early for them to understand. But, I know that no bad habits are forming. However, if they are doing the same of a rumba box step, I might say something to the effect of, "good, now try the same thing while keeping your toes on the ground" in order to prevent having to so drastically change his/her habits around later.

But, I think I know what you are saying and that is, don't complicate things in the beginning. And, I agree with that completely. There is a timeline for everything and you can't let yourself or a student (if you are an instructor) get frustrated over things that are too advanced for whatever level you are working on.

Xtal. This is an intersting point when you say you will correct a person if they do a Rumba step forward incorrect and yet will not mention that in the Waltz we need a heel lead. Which leads me to believe you are more into Latin than Standard. I had this argument very recently with a professional who was exactly the same but the other way around to your way of thinking. Myself I will always say even in a Social class the correct first step.Why not.

"Xtal. This is an intersting point when you say you will correct a person if they do a Rumba step forward incorrect and yet will not mention that in the Waltz we need a heel lead. Which leads me to believe you are more into Latin than Standard. I had this argument very recently with a professional who was exactly the same but the other way around to your way of thinking. Myself I will always say even in a Social class the correct first step.Why not."

Quickstep, once again you go leveling rediculous accusations based on nothing but your own IGNORANCE.

XTAL is quite wisely making use of ordinary human movement, trained in years of pre-dance experience, as a starting point. Taking a heel lead is a natural action and will develop without attention if students are continually pushed to discover natural movement. Taking a toe lead on the other hand is an un-natural one that must be taught.

Put a person one in front of another and look at the feet. You will find that with a beginner there is more of a tendency to go to the ball of the foot and not the heel. Was it Richard Geyer, or was it the big guy that did just that. I can't see any possible reaon why one minute should not be used to explain and to demonstrate the correct and the incorrect way of doing that very first step. I would say be sure that you get the heel on the floor and not the ball of the foot on the floor and then lower imediately at the end of the step. Wouldn't that be good teaching. And if you ever go for a teaching examination this had better be your explanation if asked to explain

"Put a person one in front of another and look at the feet. You will find that with a beginner there is more of a tendency to go to the ball of the foot and not the heel."

Which is why you have to get them moving NATURALLY again. What you describe is an un-natural movement prompted by initial exposure to the problem of having a partner; they have to get over that.

"I can't see any possible reaon why one minute should not be used to explain and to demonstrate the correct and the incorrect way of doing that very first step."

Perhaps becuase what is demonstrated as a purposefull heel lead is almost certainly INCORRECT. It ends up being overexaggerated and very awkward and unnatural. Simply stress natural movement, and they will start doing what advanced dancers do, skipping right over all that overemphasized silliness of those who think (incorrectly) that they know what the proper footwork is. A good heal lead is really a rather subtle thing!