I saw a competition couple, pretty high class. The teacher had them doing their Quickstep routine. Starting not together but at different parts of the hall with the music. If either one missed a beat the teacher could see imediately where the trouble was. This couple had no trouble with what to me apeared a tricky routine. What a way to make sure they both know the steps and the timing. I wonder if this ia a teaching method used in Europe.

I don't think it's confined to Europe -- it's just a good idea in general. My partner and I (in the US) decided on our own to practice this way from time to time. When one of us gets "lost" and messes up the routine doing it solo like this, we see exactly who is having the trouble when and then we work on helping each other to understand what we're supposed to be doing. We discovered some interesting things that way!

Laura. Did you decide on this yourselves
or was it given to you.I've done something in Latin but never thought to turn it to Modern Ballroom untill an overseas couple introduced it to us. It does iron out a few faults does n't it. Happy Dancing.

We saw a professional couple who competes in the American Smooth style doing it, and thought we'd try it in some of our own Standard practices.

It's a great idea, if you want to dance like a trained poodle.

Partner dance is interactive... not parallel script reading.

I don't see how having each partner dance separately to figure out where they lack understanding and skill and then coming together to work on those areas means they are dancing like "trained poodles."

For instance, by dancing our routines separately from time to time my partner and I figured out some interesting things -- there was one figure where we both had entirely different conceptions as to who was doing what, to the point where we each had in our head a different figure to dance than the other one. When we were dancing together we couldn't see it, we could only feel that the other person was doing the wrong thing. We didn't actually realize that the problem was because I thought we were dancing one step and he thought we were dancing another! But when we danced separately and also showed each other our separate dancing, the problem became immediately obvious, and we had a good laugh over it. Then we talked about what we were doing and fixed the problem. We also experimented with the two different confusing steps to figure out how their leads differ in feel. It was a very instructive experience, and we'd have never gotten there if we hadn't tried dancing our routines solo separately.

Anything that helps to improve our dancing is good. Try dancing your routine as long as you can without holding hands,just body contact. This takes good balance and paying close attention to what your partners body is telling you.

The problem with both of these methods is that you should not be doing something because it is in the routine, or because of where you can feel your partner's body is.

You should be doing something because his hands are leading it.

Sorry, abcdef, that's not the way good ballroom dancing works. Body lead is the ideal in ballroom dancing. Perhaps you dance a different style? Also, you may not realize that the other posters are talking about preparing competition routines, not social dancing.

"Body lead is the ideal in ballroom dancing."

Try taking lessons with a true expert. Many of the top competitors bodies rarely touch - though they are not far enough apart to easily see this.