Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie with a question. I have taken one ballroom class when I was in college and then I took a break. Now I am back at taking classes at 32 years old and I find myself in a curious situation. I have always been a good dancer, my problem is that I am in between right now. I am too good for beginner classes (I already know the basics), but I just don't have the money for private lessons. The studios that offer advanced classes (AM and FA in our area in NJ) are requiring that you take some private lessons - you cannot just attend a group class.

I have been looking for a partner that is more experienced than I am, but so far I'm unsuccessful. The only option for me right now are the socials, but I'd like to find out if there are any other possibilities. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!

"I have always been a good dancer, my problem is that I am in between right now. I am too good for beginner classes (I already know the basics)"

It may be too early to do this, but consider taking the beginning classes, not to learn the figures, but to study what goes on and thus discover clues about dancing.

For example, don't listen to what the teacher is trying to tell the class, listen to what the teacher is actually revealing about dancing and how they think of it. Study your classmates. Do they do what the teacher wanted? Why not? What part of the explanation was difficult to undertstand?

What part was difficult to do? What perhaps did not get explained or understood quite right, but would need to happen before what the teacher said could be applied with success?

Also, try looking beyond the chain studios. The sad reality though is you won't save money or be able to avoid private lessons in the long run, but you may get a lot more value for what you end up spending with other teachers.

Check out:

Community Centres
YM/YWCA
Etc.

They often offer low-cost group classes.

Also contact your neighbourhood community college/ university's student associations (they might have a ballroom or dance club).

Also, many community colleges and universities run seperate group dance classes through their community rec. programs.

OB

http://www.dancingdragon52.com

Most private instructors also teach group classes. These aren't very expensive. No, they are not a good as private lessons, but if you select a good instructor, it is very likely that he/she will be teaching some technique along with those steps. Most GOOD instructors feel an obligation to teach this even though they know very few in the group class will get it. For most people, especially beginners, the technique is pretty difficult to get from a group class, but if you concentrate on everything that is being taught, including what the instructor is doing but not explaining, and not just on step patterns maybe you can pick up some of it. The part you miss is that when you think you have it, there is no feedback saying, no that is not correct, here is what you need to do. Often when you think you are doing something correctly, you will actually be doing something else. You can do some amount of evaluating yourself by video taping yourself and comparing what you are doing to a video tape of a professional doing the same thing. At least when you see that your version looks really weird by comparison, you know you don't have it yet. This should work for some things, but there are a few techniques that I have never seen anyone be successful at picking up without private lessons.

Have you tried the beginner classes? There may be more info in them than you expect. And if you shop around, you may find a teacher who includes more technique. In any case, if you already know the footwork being taught, you can look at other things the teacher is doing when s/he demonstrates--exactly how the foot or knee or hip is moving, for example. You might explain your situation to the teacher and ask what else you should be paying attention to for the dance being taught.

Or take a beginner class in the opposite role (with the teacher's permission). Learn the follower's role if you're a leader or vice versa. Knowing what the other half does and feels will help you do your part better.

Or take one private a month, if you can afford that.

Or get a small group together and arrange with a private instructor to teach "semi-private" lessons with 4 or 6 people sharing the cost.

I dont know exactly where you are in New Jersey, but you should check out Battista Dance Studio.

Mario and Elena Battista's Studio

They have alot of teachers, and I didnt really look closely but they seem to have alot of groups going on. Plus I do know that Mario and Elena are very good.

Another option is videos. You can buy videos that are for a wide variety of levels. Some teachers also do group lessons at Intermediate and Advanced levels. If you go the video route, it would be good to do an occasional private lesson to work on technique.

Videos are a particularly BAD source of information (unless you want to remain a beginner forever) since they do not teach you HOW to make the movements.

You can alays tell when you have a student that 'learns' by watching videos, rather than being shown by an instructor how the body makes the movements - they are the dancers that stutter and weave through 'steps' as if... well, as if they 'saw' what to do. Dance is an illusion, and these folks are the ones that 'dip' and 'sway' in all the wrong, awkward places.

Also, video is not 3D as is dancing, so even if by some miracle you actually figured out what body movement was necessary to make the shape, you'd still not see it in depth of field, hence you would look like thoose ungrounded, disattached people you see at the socials. You do NOT want to 'learn' that way. If it was possible, then trust me, you would see everyone using them and no private lessons given.