Dancing is an expression of your emotion

I think it is safe to say that even before man discovered that by beating a hollow log with a stick and produced a controlled sound man has danced. The ability to tap our feet and move to a beat has always been a part of us. It didn't just suddenly appear. It has always been there. Let it out.

I think this belongs here.
I TRY NOT To DANCE BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE.
I TRY ONLY TO DANCE BETTER THAN MYSELF.
That would be an ideal attitude to have

Isn't it interesting that no one says that they dance so they can beat others in a contest? Or so they can win a trophy? Or so they can perform perfectly?

My guess is that well over 90% of folks who want to learn to dance come to their studio wanting to, "Feel the music", "move as one with another person", "have fun", "make friends", have something fun do do on a Saturday night",---or one of my favorites, "Flirt with the pretty girls, and make them smile and laugh".

What these people are sold is far from what they wanted when they walked in the front door.

Instead of teaching the women how to follow, the women are taught amalgamations that only men who have taken lessons at her studio know how to do.

Instead of learning how to lead and follow and play with each other, people are taught how to, "Compete, and Perform", for a camera, or a Judge.

How sad. Many Dance instructors are killing the fun that used to be such a large part of Dancing.

Dancing was so much more fun when people were taught to dance by their family and friends.

I guess their family and friends just wanted to play, and have fun.

Pivotingfool -- Very well said, and right on! There's lots of dancing here in the Washington, D.C. area, and the dances that are flourishing, e.g., contra, salsa, cajun, nightclub, are the ones with which instruction has a minimal engagement.

I dance because it's so fun. And I feel free!!! I forget EVERYTHING. It's incredible!

I agree with this..some instructors themselves can't do cbmp. They can define it word for word out of a manual and attempt to teach it but have no idea themselves what it should feel like.

Amalgamations are an easy way to make a couple practice something when the guy cannot remember his steps, but if he never learns to deviate from this routine or expand beyond it I often regret heavily, teaching it in the first place.

Sometimes it seems like studios are so focused on keeping the student we fill useless knowledge and over teach to sound smart or to give them a reason to stay for a second lesson. However, I find the student isn't progressing. Maybe he understands the concept but isn't doing it. Can't feel... we have lost the art of teaching and dancing. I wish we could get back into how it feels to dance, whether it be follow or lead and step back from all the flash and trash we see in routines. I don't want to sound negative, choreography and routines do have a positive influence on building confidence and other skills. But after the routine is over, the student is back to square one and can't socially dance a tango or rumba whatever it may be.

We need to prioritize, what is the business of selling lessons and what is the reason clients want to dance and how do we really service their needs?

Insructor. How right you are when you wrote."We fill them with useless knowlenge and over teach to sound smart"
Thats why I always say that a Technique Class Only is the best way to go where correct technique is the main issue and not filling the students with variations which none can do correctly and is forgotten the next morning.
Chines Proverb.
Tell me and I will surely forget.
Show me and I may remember
But make me do it and I will certainly understand.

Not where I dance! The joy is there as is as much perfectionism as the individual wants.

Most I know are dancing for pleasure and exercise and our instructor is great about meeting that need while teaching the steps well.

Well, I'll be honest when I compete I want to win that trophy. I want to feel that all my hard work has paid off. But, you must dance for yourself, and the passion that you feel inside. Yet there are two different reasons for dancing: competition and perfomance, and secondly: social dancing. People all want to have fun when they are social dancing, to meet new people, to enjoy the evening, to make your heart sing through dance movement. There is nothing quite as exciting as the musicality of dancing.