Have any of the other dancers/instructors found that a certain dance sometimes becomes one that you easily forget the steps or find them hard to "dust off" and get just right?
I ask this only because a dance I consider a fairly easy one to learn, has been a bit of a nemesis for me. It is the Salsa.
I am not requested to teach that one as often as American Standards such as Fox Trot, Waltz, and even the Swing. But it does come up on occasion, and I find that I have a hard time recalling the proper step sequence, form and flow to it. It eventually comes back, but other dances that I wouldn't do as often such as Tango, Cha-Cha and Viennese Waltz come back to me right away.
The Salsa is just being ornery, I guess.
The obvious answer is to be sure to practice all of the dances, all of the steps and variations, etc., but I am not a full-time teacher. I moonlight it in addition to a couple of other jobs I hold.
So, in closing, does anyone have a "trick" or "trigger" that would help me remember the Salsa steps without scratching my head for a few minutes?
Also, do any of you also have a dance that tends to site dormant for a while, then all of the sudden you have to dust it off?

WCS. I started it when I didn't feel confident or ready TO start it (it was a group class, and we loved dancing, so we did it), and since then, I've had A Block about it.

I think I forget about it and dance it poorly because I'm unconsciously telling my brain that I don't *want* to... it's confusing, but yes... WCS is my nemesis.

You (my opinion, that's all) just need to feel the right motivation to be inspired and willing to learn it. Like Smooth/Latin... I just... couldn't. Had all these ideas in my head, but couldn't get them out. Then, through the door walks someone who has THE SAME STUFF IN their heads that I do, I was like "Hurh?! Whonk?!!" and now that it kind of clicks... I'm back watching Youtube late at night and scratching down ideas to try with my regular partner- the only guy I trust to do some of this stuff with ;)

dheun. Each step must have a name. In the Tango you most likely do have a name filed away in your brain. like the Progressive Link or the Natural Twist Turn. Have you ever come across somebody who if they are stopped whilst dancing, or a asked to do a certain move have to go through their routine from the beginning and can't pick it up on say bar 23, which might be an Open Telemark.I have struck such a person who believe or not if you were to say to them Just do that Whisk again. Will have to do the Spin Turn and the Reverse Turn to get to the Whisk. Hard to believe but their it is.
This is another reason why there should be one accepted name for any move.
Who would in an office not file a letter away without giving it a reference number. That is how our memory works. And in dancing , not one of them that comes after that.
As I've argued before. Give everything its correct name. Even using the name Sway and not Lilt.

Polished, you may have hit the right button here. After reading your reply, I looked at my lesson plan sheets. Each dance has numerous steps and variations -- all with the proper names. Except .... ta da ... the Salsa. So I have to start charting that better. DivaGinger may also be on target as well. The inner sanctum of my head, which contrary to my wife's opinion is not vacant, probably is sending signals that Salsa is just one of those dances I don't care for too much. I would like to believe that's not true, as I've enjoyed learning and teaching just about every dance there is for several years now. But those simple Salsa steps are currently in my reference file as "annoying."

This makes me think of something else:

In our studio, there are several guys who are very patiently "Just along for the ride"... they go through the motions so their womenfolk can be divas for several hours at a time.

The most common thing I hear out of these guys is "Aw, heck, I don' wanna learn no names er nothin'... I just wanna git them steps down, an' that's it..."

Yes. They don't want to learn the names of the steps... yet when they're having problem with "This one step that goes like this, and then kinda like that, and- heck, I done fergot it..."... that's all the description we have to go by. (Yes, I'm the smartass that usually says "Well, if you'd taken the five seconds to learn the name, I could help you, and can get away with it, for I am Lieutenant Diva *preen*)

I think that they "kinda like it" there, and "some of the stuff's pretty fun"... but they don't view themselves as dancers, and are just paying the lip-service to their ladies- honorable intentions, but when it's so half-assed, it's really a lousy kind of disservice in a way. Like if the wife needs a new car, you go and buy a busted old Dodge Omni or something- the less effort you put into it, the more it cheapens the... eh, I'm going on tangent.

Anyway- I think it's also a subconscious way to dissociate themselves from that which gives them inhibition? Like going in for a colonoscopy and saying "Ok... no, I don't want to see the video, don't TALK to me, don't LOOK me in the eye, just get this done, and I'm going to be in my happy place, K?"

Not that there are any dances as unpleasant as a stranger looking at your butt, except for maybe WCS, or Samba (just my two).

Following the Sway/Lilt thing:

If you're GOING to call it 'your own thing'- have a You-To-Proper translator/dictionary notepad. For awhile, the Weave was "this ziggy thing on the balls of the feet"... until we learned more about it, remembered "once and for all" what it was.

I think maybe guys (ok, not just guys, but for brevity's sake- as if I'm brief) think that learning "also" the name is "just one more thing to pile on my overwhelmed mind"?

Hmmm. Dodge Omnis and colonoscopies. You get a lot out of dancing, don't you.

jj

I try to impress upon the men that this is a sport, just like any other they may have played in the past. I believe Gene Kelly used that method as well, and even had video examples of how certain dance moves related to similar moves in other sports.
I have found it to be a pretty good way to get the men a little more interested in learning. For the most part, I have to say that the men at our dance studio are quite good about wanting to learn. But I agree that many, over the years, are in it for only that short eight-week session to appease their wives or girl friends for a short time.
On the topic of actually using your brains to learn and remember steps and what they should be called, here's a good one to share: I was once doing a group lesson and one of the men was showing a bit of disdain and disinterest. He even stopped and walked off the floor. I asked him what the problem was and he said, "I don't want to have to think when I'm dancing."
So I asked him what sport he played in the past, and he said hockey. So I asked, "Wouldn't you say you had to think to play that game properly?" And he said, "No, because as soon as you start to think, you get hurt."
So I knew then that I was dealing with a guy who maybe hit his head on the ice a few too many times or something. I felt bad for his wife, who really wanted to learn the dance.
Her husband figured out a dumb way to cover up his inability to do a sequence of steps properly as well as remember what to call it. Or, as one might surmise, actually think about what he was trying to do while he was trying to do it.

What is required of the Leader is, unfortunately, something that most guys [men] do not do naturally: multitasking.

Especially for those guys who "are patiently 'just along for the ride'" [DivaGinger] and who "are in it … to appease their wives or girl friends" [dheun], the following is all too often the case: if/when their partners stop coming, they abruptly stop too.

I hate to generalize but I have found that middle aged men have a very hard time learning to dance because they expect to do well right off the bat. The worst are generally men who have had successful careers, marriages, own the right car etc. and are very pleased with the way life has turned out for them. They walk into the studio with a "how hard can it be" attitude. Dance makes them feel like idiots and they blame everything and everyone for their inability to get it right away. A few hang in there, determined to get it, most quit. They mostly blame their wives but I have also heard that the studio is too hot, the music is too loud or not loud enough or not "right", other dancers keep getting in their way, or I'm a lousy instructor.

nigel and LadyDance, I believe that you're both failing to consider another explanation for the reluctance of many "middle aged men" to continue with their dancing education.

Full disclosure requirements obligate me to tell you that I fall into that category.

I have noticed than men - especially those with some world experience - are far less likely than women to develop an infatuation with the ballroom dance world. While some men do become as enamored of their female teachers as the vast majority of women do the male counterparts, most are inclined to consider the value of dance lessons. In other words, men weigh what they're getting against what they're paying while most women seem to be willing to pay almost anything to sustain their fantasies.

I believe that the truth is very simple: men are far more likely than women to see through the promotional BS which some studios and professionals employ to increase revenue.

I use the modifier "some" generously. In Atlanta, it would be "all."

Sorry if this observation offends anyone but I believe it to be true.



jj